SIX LIVES SNUFFED OUT IN FIRE

Barely three months after the fire in a 60-storey building, Avighna Park in Parel, another major fire in a 20storey residential building in Tardeo has rattled the city, snuffing out six lives and injuring 24 others.

- KALPESH MHAMUNKAR

The fire erupted at 7.30am on the 19th floor of the Sachinam Heights building opposite Bhatia Hospital in Tardeo. Most of the residents were asleep when wafts of smoke roused them. Scared residents scurried towards the main door but halted in their tracks when they realised the entire floor was enveloped in smoke. Some managed to run down the staircase, even as senior citizens and others locked the doors of their bedrooms and started screaming for help. Later, fire brigade personnel rescued them.

The fire brigade categorised it as a level-3 blaze and rushed 13 fire engines, 8 jumbo water tankers and 2 hydraulic platforms to the spot; they also had with them a turntable ladder and breathing apparatus. Five ambulances had already reached the mishap site. Still, it took the fire brigade around five hours to douse the blaze. Fire officers and residents said that the firefighting system in the building was not in a working condition.

Most of the injured were rushed to Bhatia Hospital in the vicinity, while some others were ferried to Nair, Kasturba, and Masina.