Mumbai: Fire in meter box destroys 12 houses in Bandra slum

The houses destroyed in the fire at Nargis Dutt Nagar in Bandra West, on Wednesday. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Close to 12 houses were gutted when a fire broke out in an electric meter box in the slum of Nargis Dutt Nagar in Bandra West on Wednesday morning, said officials. Though no injuries were caused by the blaze, two people were hurt when they were running away from the incident spot. The Mumbai Fire Brigade received a call around 4.40 am.

"The fire broke out in an electric meter box and the adjacent hut caught fire due to sparks. The blaze spread rapidly after blasts of four cylinders, gutting down 10-12 ground-plus-one floor houses," said an official from the fire brigade. The fire engines could not reach the exact location of the fire because the huts were far from the road, said officials. "However, our experienced fire officers pulled the water line from above the huts and started the dousing operation immediately," one of them said.

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The fire was confined to electric wiring and installations, household articles, clothes, furniture and tarpaulin, and was extinguished at 8 am. Shahrukh Sayyad and Sahil Khan, who were hurt while running away from the site where the fire erupted, are admitted to Bhabha Hospital in Bandra. They are stable, said doctors. Several fire incidents have been reported in the slum over the years, including in October 2018, when more than 100 huts were wiped out.

4.40 am
Time the fire was reported

With inputs from Suraj Pandey