70-year-old dies in fire in Mumbai's Borivli highrise, 3 hurt

MUMBAI: A 70-year-old senior citizen was killed and three others were injured in a fire that broke out in a high-rise in Borivli East a little after noon on Thursday.
Fire officials rescued over 100 residents, including senior citizens, from the 22-storey Kanakia Samarpan Tower. The building's security staff also managed to safely bring down a few residents from the lower floors.
Barring some fire extinguishers, the building did not have a functional firefighting system, said an official. The fire brigade is likely to issue a notice to the housing society over that.
It is suspected that a short in the circuit of the electrical duct between the seventh and eighth floors led to the fire. The fire was put out within half an hour, but smoke filled the passages on many floors, said a witness.
The senior citizen, Mahendra Shah, who resided on the 21st floor, was declared dead before admission at a hospital. Those injured-Ranjana Rajput (59) and daughter Shivani Rajput (26), and Shobha Savle (70)-complained of suffocation. They are being treated at the same hospital and their condition is stable.
Jamil Ahmed, a training officer from the agency responsible for the building's security who was inside at the time of the fire, told TOI that the housing society's security supervisor raised an alarm that smoke had filled the 13th floor passage. "We began asking people to leave via the staircase. It was difficult to go beyond the 13th floor as it was filled with dense smoke. Only the fire brigade could bring down the people stuck on the higher floors. Shah was rescued by fire officials and brought down. Those injured complained of suffocation," he said.
One of the security guards said the staffers tried to douse the blaze with the help of fire extinguishers till the fire brigade's arrival. A resident said their homes were filled with smoke and it became difficult to breathe.
A fire brigade official said, "The fire broke out in the electrical duct somewhere between the seventh and eighth floors, and smoke spread to the other floors. We rescued between 100 and 150 residents. It was an assisted rescue, and we even took a few residents to the terrace. Smoke-logging had incapacitated the residents and they panicked. Initially, the residents did try to extinguish the fire in the duct by using two to three fire extinguishers. But, if one doesn't switch off the electrical supply, the fire keeps erupting in the duct. We had to lay our hose lines till the 13th floor to douse the fire."
The official said those injured sustained suffocation injuries. "The senior citizen was alive when we rescued him. He may have died on the way to the hospital. We rescued many senior citizens."