Man hurt, 5 dogs die in Malad slum fire; 3rd blaze since Feb

MUMBAI: For the third time in the last four months, a fire erupted in Appapada slum area of Malad East post- Monday midnight.

According to the BMC, the fire broke out around 2.30am affecting close to half-a-dozen slums. Five dogs died in the blaze while one person sustained minor injuries and was admitted to SK Patil civic hospital in Malad East.

Unlike the previous blazes, fire brigade officials said that the probable cause of the fire this time was a short circuit in one of the slums, following which the flames spread rapidly to the nearby slums. Last time, the blaze had erupted owing to a cylinder blast.

Ajay Jadhav, senior officer from the Dindoshi fire station, said, “By the time our teams reached the spot, the blaze had spread to four slums. These being kaccha homes, they started burning rapidly. We immediately tried to rescue people and also removed the LPG cylinders from the site so that they do not blast like they did during the earlier fires.”

This is the third incident of fire since February this year. On February 13, a 12- year-old boy had died while eight others were injured after a blaze erupted in over 25 hutments in the same locality. Again in March, one person had died after a fire erupted and spread across 800 hutments. Here, over a dozen LPG cyclometer explosions had occurred.

Former BJP corporator from Malad Vinod Mishra has demanded that a fire station be set up around the Bua Salvi Maidan, in Kurar so that it is much easier for the fire brigade to reach the locality during such disasters.

“Currently, fire tenders have to come from Dindoshi or Borivli and very often they get stuck in traffic jams. During peak hours it can affect the fire brigade movement even further. Therefore there is a need for a fire station to be set up around this locality. This is forest land, and it is also important to rehabilitate all these people in one go or else such incidents could take place repeatedly,” said Mishra.