Pradeep Zagade, the 45-year-old assistant fire officerwho died of suffocation while attempting to douse a raging fire at Goyal Shopping Centre in Borivli on February 18, literally walked into a death trap.
Initial observations made by the civic officials probing reasons for the tragedy reveal that the shopping centre violated fire safety norms.
Zagade entered the basement along with two other firemen. But he found himself trapped and could not escape in time. Fire officials said Zagade died due to excessive inhalation of smoke inside the congested basement portion — it housed over 60 shops. The other two fire officials narrowly escaped death, managing to get out in the nick of time.
All the ventilation outlets provided for the basement had been covered up in violation of fire safety rules. A senior civic official said that split air conditioners had been installed by shop owners in the space allotted for ventilation.
The official pointed out another major violation. “The basement portion should not have been commercially exploited,” he said. “As per plans approved by the municipal corporation, the basement portion was earmarked as a godown space meant for storage.”
The shopping centre’s plan had been approved by the BMC in the early 1980s. Investigations will now be carried out on whether action had been initiated against the shop owners and the society managing the shopping complex for using the basement portion for for commercial purpose. A civic team will also probe if corporation officials had neglected the blatant violations committed at the site. Stringent action under the Maharashtra Region Town Planning (MRTP) Act could be taken against those found guilty for the illegalities.
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