12 die in Mumbai fire

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 18

Twelve people lost their lives after a fire broke out at a shop in Saki Naka area early this morning, police and fire officials said.

Officials said the fire was apparently cause by a short-circuit at Bhanu Farsan shop on Khairani Road around 4 am today. The victims were sleeping on a loft inside the shop and could not escape as the fire spread. Due to the intense heat, the loft collapsed.

“The local people told us that 15-20 people sleep in the shop every night after it closed for business,” chief fire officer PS Rahangdale told reporters here.

He added that fire officials who rushed in managed to pull out six people who were badly burnt. They were later declared dead at the hospital. Fire officials recovered the bodies of the remaining victims from the debris of the collapsed loft, Rahangdale added.

Police officials said the shop might have been locked from the outside by its owner because of which the victims could not escape.

“We will file charges against the owners of the shop if we find that it was locked from outside,” a police official from the Saki Naka police station said.

This is the third such case in Mumbai this year where people locked within a commercial establishment died following fires, said police and fire officials said.