32 incidents of vehicle fires in Mumbai in 14 months, traffic affected

MUMBAI: Thirty-two incidents of vehicles catching sudden fire were reported in the city between Jan 2025 and mid-Feb 2026, endangering road users and throwing vehicular traffic out of gear.

Two of these incidents were reported in the first two weeks of Feb alone on busy arterials during peak hour.


Fire safety experts said electrical faults are a probable reason, typically due to rodents chewing up electrical wires in cars.

The latest incident was reported on Feb 11 on the southbound arm of a flyover on Western Express Highway (WEH), Goregaon East.

Police had opened a counter lane on this arm to decongest traffic when, suddenly, a car went up in flames around 7.20 pm.
The fire brigade was summoned, and the flames were put out by 7.40 pm.

The police then organised for a crane to tow the charred vehicle under the flyover, where it was parked safely.

Just four days prior, on Feb 7, another car went up in flames at 10 pm on the northbound arm of WEH at Vile Parle. The fire was put out by 10.30 pm, and after towing away the charred vehicle, traffic flow could be resumed by 10.35 pm.

There were no casualties in either incident and the probable cause was a short circuit due to issues with wiring, officials said.

Retired fire officer Rajendra Chaudhary points out that the rodent menace in parking areas is a key reason for damaged electrical wiring. “Once a vehicle is parked at night, rats creep in and gnaw at the electrical wiring and the fuel pipe.

As a result, petrol could leak and if it comes into contact with a heated engine while the motorist is driving, the end result could be a sudden fire,” said Chaudhary.

He pointed out that another causal factor for fires is tampering of electric system of cars while adding accessories But the most challenging to douse are fires in electric vehicles. “A fire in a small electric car could take thousands of litres of water to put out,” said Chaudhary.

Issues with batteries is typically a key reason for fires in electric vehicles. “It could take anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes for the entire process of putting out flames in a burning vehicle, cooling down and towing it away. The stretched gets blocked during this period, resulting in massive traffic backlogs. We want to appeal to motorists to maintain their vehicles regularly as a sudden fire endangers the lives of road users,” said joint commissioner, traffic, Anil Kumbhare.