Brigade Call: Fire officials

When the Fire Brigade emergency control room received the first call about the fire in Mantralaya around 2.45 pm,it was declared a Grade 2 fire,before being upgraded to a ‘Brigade Call’ within an hour. A senior fire brigade officer said,“When more than 16 fire engines are called to the spot,we declare it a Brigade Call. This depends on the intensity of the fire. In this case more than three floors were gutted and yet we were not able to bring it under control.Also,the municipal commissioner is required to visit the spot.”

Previous ‘Brigade Call’ fire incidents include the Manish Market fire on November 26 last year in which more than 2,000 shops were gutted in Manish Market and Saara Sahara market in South Mumbai.

Another Brigade Call was the Garib Nagar Fire of March 4,2011,in which more than 700 homes were destroyed and 2,000 people rendered homeless.