Juhu fire BMC to carry out survey, ask residents to take safety steps

“The area has been declared as a slum. In most areas nearby, slum rehabilitation projects are going on. Also, apart from the municipal conservancy staff quarters, some of the area falls under the collector’s office.

“We will survey the area that falls in our jurisdiction and write to agencies concerned about others. This will be to create awareness so that such tragic incidents are not repeated,” said Parag Masurkar, Assistant Commissioner of K (West) ward office.

Meanwhile, fire officials and experts said that such old structures in the city were fire traps due to various reasons.

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“These areas are congested and has no approach roads. Also, in many cases, the trapdoors inside the structures are positioned such that it is difficult for residents to escape,” said one retired fire officer.

He added that most of these structures did not have any fire safety equipment, including fire extinguishers.

“Also, the use of illegal cylinders is another major factor that escalates the fire,” said the officer, adding that there was no provision in the Maharashtra Fire Safety Act to initiate any action in this regard.

Residents were trapped in their rooms above the Wafa Medical Store when the fire broke out on June 30, due to the lack of an external staircase.

The only staircase in the building opened into the medical store and that sealed the exit route of the victims. Fire officials said prima facie it seemed the fire was caused due to a short circuit.

Pratap Karguppikar, retired chief fire officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, voiced the need to adopt fire safety procedures.

“There was no separate escape route from the first floor. It directly opened into the shop, which is illegal. Many lives could have been saved if this had not been overlooked,” he said.

Karguppikar also felt that lack of ventilation in the chemist’s shop as well as the building was another drawback.

“In a medical store, due to the presence of so many chemicals, toxic gases like carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide are released. The victims must have begun suffocating before they could plan their escape,” he added.

“It is not easy to install a ventilation system in a pharmacy, mainly because many medicines need to be stored in AC rooms. Chemists, however, need to ensure that their fire extinguishers are perfectly functional and their electric apparatus has proper fuses and no faults,” said Prasad Danave, General Secretary of the Retail Dispensing Chemist Association (RDCA).