Three persons from Gujarat died, while two others were injured after a fire broke out at Galaxy Hotel in Santacruz East, near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon. Personnel from the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) said that the hotel didn’t have any in-built fire fighting system other than conventional fire extinguisher cylinders. It took over an hour to bring the flames under control and officials suspect that a short circuit could have triggered it. The deceased and injured were passengers on transit who were transferred to the three-star hotel by an airline after their flight to Nairobi was delayed by nearly 14 hours. The three deceased have been identified as Rupal Kanji (25), Kishan (28) and Kantilal Gordhan Vara (48) who were in Mumbai to board their flight to Nairobi from CSMIA. The passengers checked in to the hotel around 5 am Sunday and the flight was supposed to take off around 7 pm. The two injured are Alfa Vakhariya (19) and Manjula Vakhariya (49), also from Gujarat. Civic officials said that at present, the two injured are in a stable condition. The incident was reported around 1.17 pm and according to the MFB, the fire originated from the air-conditioner’s duct in room number 204 on the second floor and later spread to the first floor and third floor. The flames remained confined within the electrical ducts, wiring units and cables. The deceased were staying in room numbers 204 and 304. The MFB officials said that combustible items such as clothes and wooden furniture intensified the blaze. “The blaze erupted from the second floor and it didn’t take much time for it to spread to the remaining floors. The victims suffered severe burns and died. The entire corridor was engulfed with smoke, which also caused suffocation to them,” said PG Dhudhal, fire official who was present at the spot. “The hotel was constructed in 1966 and during that time there were no DCPR norms in Mumbai. So there was no compulsion of setting up in-built fire fighting systems and sprinklers inside the hotel. It only had extinguishing cylinders,” Ravindra Ambulekar, chief fire officer told The Indian Express. “The corridors along with all the major parts of the building were engulfed in smoke, due to which search and rescue operations became difficult. We had to set up extension ladders from outside the building through which the people were rescued,” said Ambulekar. Civic officials maintained that around 25 passengers who were in transit stayed at the hotel in the city. “Initially we saw smoke coming out from the windows and flames soon after. Later people started rushing out haphazardly and smoke engulfed the entire locality,” said Mohamed Rizwan, a local resident. A passenger said on condition of anonymity, “We had gone out for lunch when the fire broke out. We rushed back when we received a message from the hotel authorities. Luckily nobody from our family was affected but some of our luggage was lost.”
