740 dead in one afternoon: The 1944 Bombay Explosion that made Mumbai observe Fire Safety Week every April

The Bombay dock explosions

In February 1944, when the Second World War was at its peak, the British freighter SS Fort Strikine had sailed from England as part of a naval convoy comprising 20 ships. The convoy was heading to Asian waters to load itself with ammunition and supplies for carrying out a strike against the Japanese forces.

Besides ammunition and explosives, the frigate also had gold bars on board, alongside a mini fighter plane. On its way to Mumbai (then Bombay), the frigate had stopped in the port of Karachi on March 30, where a significant portion of its cargo was unloaded, including crated spitfires, gold bars and 1400 tons of explosives, which included shells, torpedoes, mine signal rockets and incendiary bombs. According to the National Archives record, the loaded materials were, however, meant for discharge at Bombay.

Furthermore, the records state that to fill up the hollow of the unloaded items, tonnes of flammable supplies like cotton, oil, scrap iron, fish manure and sulphur were loaded into the ship, which was against the rules.

The freighter reached Bombay’s Victoria Dock on April 12, and on the next day, the unloading operation began.

“The fish manure and oil drums, some of which were leaking. This delay was the first of many errors that would lead to the catastrophic explosion,” the archive records state.

The records state that Fort Stikine was one of the 13 ships being worked that day; next door in Princes Dock were a further ten ships. At midday on 14 April, the stevedores broke for lunch. So, as it turned out, did the civilian watchmen, a fact unknown to the captain, his officers or the two DEMS Gunners patrolling the ship.

According to a memoir by Able Seaman — Denis Mahoney, who was Defence Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMA) gunner at the ship, at around 12.45 pm on April 14 smoke was seen coming from the ventilators.

“A member of the police force also saw the smoke at 1.30 pm but dismissed it, believing that those on board would have the situation in hand. It was not until 13.45 that Mohamed Taqi, a foreman of a stevedore gang, observed the smoke. The alarm was raised by the crew, and soon several hoses were directed into the direction. A standard precaution in the docks was to have a trailer pump with full crew standing by when a ship was being discharged. Seeing the stampede of people from the ship, the Section Leader ordered his Sub Leader to contact the Fire Brigade Control Room and give them a Number Two message (this would have alerted the Fire Control Room that the ship carried explosives),” states Mahoney’s letter in the government archives of the United Kingdom.

“Unfortunately, the Sub Leader was unable to telephone the control; he instead broke the glass on the fire alarm, alerting the Fire Brigade to a fire – but not that it involved explosives! Consequently, only two engines were dispatched. Due to the density of the smoke, the crew and firemen could not find the source of the fire and poured water in blindly,” Mahoney’s memoir stated.

Later, around 4.06 pm, a massive explosion rocked the island city and broke the ship into two pieces. Nearly half an hour later, a second explosion occurred, damaging all the remaining 13 ships that were anchored at the Victoria docks. The fire brigade’s record shows that the first explosion was heard at 4.06 pm, while the second explosion was heard at 4.41 pm.

The fire brigade took three days to bring the blaze under control. Following that, more than 8,000 people worked day and night for seven months to remove five lakh tonnes of debris. The official death toll in the incident was 740, out of which 476 were military personnel. As many as 1,800 people were injured in the incident, and 27 other ships and vessels had sunk. Therefore, to commemorate this incident, the week starting from April 14 is observed as Fire Safety week nationally.

What’s happening in Mumbai at Fire Safety week?

This year, the theme of Fire Safety Week is “safe schools, safe hospitals, safe society,” highlighting the need to build a fire-resilient infrastructure. As part of the campaign fire safety drives and campaigns are being planned in as many as 35 fire-fighting stations in Mumbai. Alongside this, the MFB has also put out its firefighting equipment for display at the MFB headquarters in the Byculla command centre.

One of the key artefacts displayed is a vehicle-mounted turn-table ladder – made of cast iron that was in the helm of rescue operations on April 14, 1944. A turntable ladder, also known as a TTL, is a small mini truck which has a ladder affixed on it. The ladders are installed on a hydraulic platform which could be rotated and raised during rescue operations.

The MFB has recently restored this ladder-mounted rescue vehicle, bringing it back to a motorable condition.

“This vehicle is a testament of MFB’s valour. The loss of lives in the 1944 fire incident would have been much more had the brigade not been prompted into the rescue operation immediately. This machine played a pivotal role since we were able to rescue more than 100 workers who were trapped inside the compound with the help of this vehicle,” an official said.

The official said that due to iron made body and slick design, it became easy for the officials to manoeuvre through the congested bylanes of the dockyard. The vehicle also had a bell fitted on it, which alerted the people around so they would make way for it.

The fire brigade’s record states that the vehicle was manufactured in 1937 by the British-based automobile firm Leyland, and it was in 1941 when it was incorporated in the brigade.

“During the 20th century, ladders like these were labelled in the category of sophisticated equipment since most of the firefighting agencies in the country couldn’t afford to induct such high-end vehicles in their fleets,” the official said.