Massive fire breaks out at Mumbai mall; 250-300 people rescued, brigade call declared

A major fire erupted at a mall in south Mumbai on Thursday night where around 250-300 people were present. All of them were rescued and no injuries were reported.

The fire broke out at around 8:53 pm at the City Centre mall after which at least 20 fire tenders and seven jetties were rushed to the site to douse the flames. Two of the firemen received burn injuries during the operation and were immediately rushed to the JJ Hospital.

While it was initially categorised as level 1 (minor), the fire was upgraded to level-3 (major) at around 10:45 pm after the flames spread to other parts of the complex. At 2:30 am the Mumbai fire brigade officials declared this brigade call. It means that now help has been sought from HPCL, BPCL, BPT. So far, there is no news of anyone being trapped inside the mall.

At 4 am, it was upgraded to level-5.

For safety purposes, a multi-storey building adjacent to the mall was evacuated. The work of evacuating the 55-storey building was started from the night itself. The building was evacuated within 3 to 4 hours and about 3000-3500 people were evacuated.

At the time of writing this report, the fire is still to be brought under control. Efforts are underway to douse the fire.

The exact cause of the fire isn't clear yet, officials said. As per the locals, the mall mainly houses shops selling mobile phone accessories. 

It was the second fire reported in Mumbai in one day. Earlier on Thursday, a fire razed a garment factory in Kurla West.