6 shanties of Kalwa gutted in fire triggered by cylinder leak

THANE: Six shanties in Saiba Nagar of Kalwa were gutted after a domestic gas cylinder leakage triggered a blaze in one of the hutments leaving around 30 slum dwellers homeless on Wednesday afternoon.Officials said the fire that began at around 12.30pm took around two hours to douse as firstly they had to evacuate more than 20 families in the vicinity.Two fire engines, three rescue vehicles and a water tanker were pressed into service by the local fire brigade and the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) later took the women, children and senior citizens to a safe area nearby. Santosh Kadam, disaster officer, said, “We rushed to the slum settlement located nearby within minutes and evacuated the area because there was a lot of smoke. We do not know where exactly the fire originated. A gas cylinder leakage is suspected to have triggered the blaze.”Fire officials also said that a major tragedy was averted as the slum dwellers, most of them daily wage labourers, had gone to work and the children were at school.