13 May,2016 07:01 AM IST | | Tanvi Deshpande
A fire broke out in a nursing home at South Mumbai on Thursday evening. The fire brigade officials received a call around 8 pm after which 10 vehicles in all, including fire engines, water tankers and ambulances rushed to the spot
A fire broke out in a nursing home at South Mumbai on Thursday evening. The fire brigade officials received a call around 8 pm after which 10 vehicles in all, including fire engines, water tankers and ambulances rushed to the spot and firemen rescued 19 people.
The fire brigade officials said the fire at Nusser building did not injure anyone, even though trapped people suffered from breathing problems. Pic/Ajinkya Sawant
Fire brigade officials told mid-day, that the nursing home in the building where the fire broke out, had been closed for some time.
A fire brigade official said, "We received a call at 7.55 pm on Thursday that a fire had broken out at Rajniben Arya Nursing Home in a five storey building, Nusser in Girgaum, after which 10 of our vehicles reached the spot and we rescued 19 people."
Raju Jain, a trustee of NM Vora Charitable Trust, which owns the building, said, "I was informed about it by a tenant, and I rushed there at around 8 o'clock. We usually ask all the tenants to keep fire fighting equipments but we have no control over its maintenance. The clinic has been here for a long time and nobody thought that this would happen."
Dr AP Chitre, who also has a clinic on the third floor of the building, said "When this happened my clinic was shut. We had just left and I was informed by my staff about the fire. It was a lucky escape."
Rescuing the trapped
The fire brigade used a turn table ladder to rescue 11, while five people were rescued with a regular ladder. Paresh V of Vasani Coaching Classes was trapped on the fourth floor, when the fire broke out. The heat and the smoke posed a problem for him. A fire brigade officer said he broke into tears after being rescued. Paresh V said, "I am fine now. Thankfully I was saved."
While Jain said all tenants had been asked to keep fire-fighting equipments, Amitya Motiwala, the owner of New Son's International Limited whose office is in the building, said this was not done. He said, "The building didn't have any fire fighting system."
Additional Divisional Fire Officer SD Sawant said, "The door of the nursing home was locked. We had to break it to get to the fire."
Fire brigade officials said nobody sustained any major injury, but trapped people suffered from breathing problems and shock.
The fire was curbed at the right time so only the structure of the nursing home was burnt.
