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Fire guts more than 500 houses in Mumbai slum
A major fire which broke out in a slum colony in a north-eastern suburb on Tuesday night gutted more than 500 houses, leaving one dead, seven injured and scores of families without a home.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 23:38 January 8, 2009
Mumbai: A major fire which broke out in a slum colony in a north-eastern suburb on Tuesday night gutted more than 500 houses, leaving one dead, seven injured and scores of families without a home.
Fire Brigade authorities say the cause of the fire is still being investigated, while local residents of Cheetah Camp, a congested slum in Trombay, say they heard a cooking gas cylinder explode at 8.30pm in one of the homes which they believe could have triggered the blaze.
Lines of shanty homes in over a dozen narrow gullies in an 8,000-sq ft area caught fire and residents ran towards the main road in panic.
Children lost
"My husband and I had just returned from work when the fire started engulfing our row of huts," Malhari, 30, told Gulf News. "The lights went off and in the commotion of running towards the road, my two children also rushed out. It was then that our nightmare began for us since we could not find them," she says.
The couple began making inquiries at the Trombay police station, a nearby municipal school where many had taken shelter and a local church. "After nearly three hours, we found them in a home where a family had protected them from the crowds and given them food," says Malhari as she sat in a relative's home.
Most of the residents whose shacks were gutted by fire lost everything that they possessed - household items, cash, clothes and most important their ration card - the only proof of their identity.
"The fire destroyed everything, even our family Holy Quran," says Mohammad Gouz, 35, a tailor, thankful his wife and three little children are safe.
Community spirit
The fire brigade arrived half an hour after the fire started and brought it under control only by 3 am, says Nagaraj, 20, as he helps his relatives retrieve whatever they can from the burnt hut.
Over dozen fire engines were rushed into the slum area where "firemen were helped by local residents to take the water pipes into the interior of the slums," he says.
Shahabuddin, 17, studying in the local Tamil municipal school said it was the public and local youth who went out of their way to help the firemen. "Initially, only two fire engines arrived but the water was not enough to douse the flames. More fire engines arrived only by 10.30 pm."
His home was unaffected but he joined in to help the elderly, as well as women and children get out of the narrow burning gullies quickly.
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