Sleeping residents caught unawares as fire broke out in Chembur chawl

Local residents say the entire ground-plus-two storey chawl was home to the Guptas, who lived as a joint family. While the ground floor housed a grocery shop run by the family, the members stayed on the upper floors.

Recounting the incident, local residents said that it was the eldest son and the patriarch of the household – the only two surviving members – who raised the first alarm on the fire. While the BMC is yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire, people who aided in the rescue work said that a lamp lit in the shop, possibly triggered the fire.

Guptas’ neighbour Ashutosh Gangurde, who aided in the rescue operations, said, “Around 4 am, the eldest son of the house and his father, who spotted the fire, alerted all of us and we rushed to extinguish the fire. We alerted the other members who were sleeping on the upper floors and started attempts to bring them out. We tried to break the walls and the roof but the fire spread very quickly, possibly due to kerosene cans stored in the shop.”

Gangurde added that the Gupta family had been running the kirana store for the past 40-50 years. “The fire brigade reached soon and pumped water from at least three tankers. Yet the fire kept spreading,” he said.

By the time the trapped members were rescued from the burning structure, they suffered severe burns. The victims have been identified as Prisi Prem Gupta (6), Manju Prem Gupta (30), Geetadevi Gupta (60), Prem Chediram Gupta (30), Vidhi Dharamdev Gupta (16), Naremdra Dharamdev Gupta (10) and Anita Dharamdev Gupta (39).

‘Peace-loving, affable’

Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, the Gupta family who had been residing at Siddharth Colony for decades have been peace-loving and affable, residents recall.

A relative of the Guptas, who requested anonymity, told The Indian Express, “While they ran the shop for several decades, they stopped running it full-time nearly 10-15 years ago, after the sons of the family had children and started with other professional jobs. Since then, they would open the shop only part-time.”

One of the sons of the family (Dharamdev) also ran a chemist shop in the vicinity. In the aftermath of the fire, several customers of the shop also flocked to the site on Sunday afternoon. A teary-eyed customer of the chemist shop said, “We would frequently visit their chemist shop. When got to know about the fire in the morning, we recognised the family immediately and rushed here.”

Another neighbour of the Guptas, requesting anonymity, said, “We have known the family since my childhood as we all grew up here. They were very calm, cool and lived peacefully. They were all very friendly and never ran into problems.”

Two members who survived the blaze include the over 70-year-old patriarch of the family, Chedilal Gupta and his eldest son, Dharamdev Gupta.
Arvind, a cousin of the victim, told The Indian Express, “They have been taken to the hospital where they are recovering.”

After the flames were doused, relatives and friends of the family scanned the burnt house to recover their belongings to aid the police and fire personnel with their investigations.

What officials say

An official from the MFB said that the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, with the investigation still underway. “It was an informally built structure with no internal fire fighting system. Our committee will conduct the investigation to determine the exact cause of the fire,” the official said.

According to a senior official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the plot, being an old area, has been notified by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. In a letter of intent (LoI) dated August 2021, the SRA had issued the principal approval for the proposed slum rehabilitation scheme on the Chembur plot for “Siddharth Colony Vikas Seva Sangh Housing Federation SRA CHS”.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde visited the site and met the aggrieved members of the family and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. The CM also assured that the injured would be treated at government expense. Shinde also called for a high-level probe to determine the cause of the fire and review measures to prevent such incidents.

The fire on Sunday comes exactly one year after a blaze at SRA building in Goregaon claimed seven lives and injured 69 on October 6, 2023.