Fire at BKC highrise

Less than a month after a major fire broke out at a high rise in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC),an underconstruction highrise building caught fire on Friday. While there were no casualties or injuries,it took the Mumbai Fire Brigade more than three hours to douze the fire which began on the ground floor and spread to the 19th floor of the highrise. Fire officials said that the 19-storeyed building called the ‘Capital Building’ contained many diesel generators on the ground floor which might have sparked the fire. “While the exact cause of the fire is unknown it must have been an accident,said a fire official.

The fire occurred around 2.40 pm,following which five fire engines,four water tankers and one ambulance were rushed to the spot. It took the fire officials over five hours for cooling operations as the fire spread due to diesel,said officials.

“The building is an underconstruction building and the fire spread from the diesel generators to the upper storeys through the ducts in the building. “As it was an underconstruction building there is no mandatory fire check which was done for this structure earlier,” said A R Patil,Deputy Chief Fire Officer.

A major fire had occurred in the highrise,Akruti Centre in MIDC in BKC last month. The building had been under the fire brigade scanner for flouting fire safety norms and had been given a notice.