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We are not at fault: Kurla Scrap Merchant Association

The scrap yard catches fire almost every year due to the combustible material stored in excess, including oil and plastic, says KF D'souza

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Fire tenders taming the blaze
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The residents of the Kurla Scrap Yard in Mandala, Makhurd, are the people affected by the CST Road project in Kurla. The collector's office had rehabilitated the legal structures in Mandala. "The scrap yard catches fire almost every year due to the combustible material stored in excess, including oil and plastic," said fire department official KF D'souza.

However, the members of the Kurla Scrap Merchant Association say that they are not at fault and have complained to various authorities regarding the encroachments. Yam Hanif, a member of the association, said, "We were rehabilitated 35 years ago and have only 177 structures. The rest came up later and we do not have count of the illegal structures."

"Till now, whenever a fire has broken out, it has been due to the encroachments. On Sunday also all the 'galas' that were gutted were illegal ones," Hanif added.

However, Mankhurd police said that even the legal structures have huge amounts of scrap material stored, including oils and chemicals that are combustible. None of the structures are fire safe.

"All the galas in the mandala have two to five labourers residing in it. When the fire broke out, the labourers who were awake warned others and everyone ran to safety. Had the fire started in day time, there would have been casualties, since many labourers and tempos are around then to transport scrap material," said Yasim Khan, who works as a tempo driver for the scrap yard.

The Kurla scrap yard located in Mandala, Mankhurd, which caught fire on Sunday, has more than 1000 commercial structures that are used only for storing waste material from hotels, factories, etc. However, police confirm that the scrap yard has barely 175 legal structures. All the structures in the area are temporary structures with an average 30x80 sq feet area each.

"The unauthorised structures have encroached way behind the actual location, where the collector's office had rehabilitated the people. They were built by encroaching into the mangroves of the Vashi creek," Suhas Hemade, inspector, Mankhurd Police Station, said.

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