Tanker inferno leaves them scarred

MUMBAI: When 18-year-old Meenal Gala first heard the explosion, she was watching TV in her second-floor home in Shanti Nivas at Sion circle. She thought it was a tyre burst and paid no attention. Then there was another. And another. “That’s when I looked out of the window and saw the flames.’’
Many of the 25 other middle-class families in her building were sleeping when a tanker of benzene overturned under the Sion flyover in front of their homes on Tuesday night at 11.05 p.m.The benzene flowed out, caught fire, blew up five autorickshaws parked on the road and spread to the ground floor of Shanti Nivas, gutting all the garment shops there.
By the time the Shanti Nivas residents, including pregnant woman, ran down the stairs, they had to jump over the five-foot-high walls to avoid the fireball at their front gate. Astonishingly, there were no casualties and only two minor injuries. However, the fate of an idliwalla who is known to serve late into the night is not known.
According to P.S. Patankar, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), the tanker was carrying 16 tons of benzene from Chembur to Kurla and swung right under the flyover towards Dharavi. The driver was probably speeding to get through the lights before they turned red and lost balance while turning. The tanker driver has been arrested. Only the residents and shopowners in the Shanti Nivas building have been affected.
An acrid smell pervades the building, the shops have suffered losses of Rs to 10 lakh each, while the first-and second-floor apartments are badly damaged. These include a nursing home, which was under renovation, and is now black shell.
Another nursing home for mental patients is on the ground floor, but residents say there were no patients there at the time.
On Wednesday, many of the families were sitting around in the compound, unable to enter their blackened, damaged houses.
Residents and shopowners unanimously blame the autos and taxis parked in front of their building, saying that they block traffic and take up road space.
Residents accuse the traffic police of paying no heed to their complaints. Police officials said they will consider relocating the stand.