Currey Road blaze: Internal changes in flat made sprinklers defunct, say fire officials

The fire started in a flat on the 19th floor of One Avighna Park on Friday. File pics

Internal changes in a flat on the nineteenth floor of One Avighna Park resulted in defunct sprinklers in the kitchen area, fire officials claimed after a prima facie probe, and added that if the sprinklers were operational the fire would not have spread. The preliminary report of the findings is likely to be submitted on Tuesday.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held two meetings on Monday on Friday's fire at 61-storey One Avighna Park wherein a security guard lost his life after falling from the balcony. Ashwini Bhide, additional commissioner and in-charge of Mumbai Fire Brigade, and Sanjeev Kumar, additional commissioner (city), were present in the meetings.

"There were sprinklers in the kitchen area. The fire started in an electric board in another room, but if the sprinkler were working, the fire would not have spread to other areas as well as the upper floors. The owner might have done some changes to the interior," said a fire official on the condition of anonymity. Citing that sprinkler heads activate after the temperature rises above 60 degrees, he added that as the fire did not spread to the lobby of the building, the system was not activated initially.

Fire officials had on Friday said the fire system was not working initially. Rohit Rathod, owner of the flat on the nineteenth floor where the fire started, had claimed he had tried to douse the fire, but the extinguishers and water pipelines were not working. He also said the fire brigade had arrived late. A fire official, not willing to be named, said, "We were here immediately after we received the call. But it's true that we struggled to put on the water supply to extinguish the fire."

Nishant Agarwal, managing director of Avighna group, said, "Our facility team received many emails from the owner of the flat asking us to approve various changes, and he had specifically sought approval to relocate the sprinklers which we have not permitted. However, during the site review on Sunday, it appeared to us that the flat owner had done these changes through a third-party contractor without our knowledge. He seemed to have shut the water supply to sprinklers on his own, and that could be the reason why the automatic response sprinklers did not activate when the fire broke out."

He further added that the last fire audit and mock drill was conducted on October 1 by Jaibharat Enterprises. mid-day tried to contact Rathod, but he did not respond. Hemant Parab, chief fire officer of MFB, refused to comment saying the inquiry is going on.
‘Security guard went to douse fire'

The security guard, who fell to his death in the fire, allegedly went from 18th floor to 19th floor (where the fire started) via a deck and not from the building's staircase, in a bid to douse the fire. "He might have got trapped. If he returned to the 18th floor using the same route or even stayed on the balcony, he could have been saved," said fire officials.

61
No. of storeys in One Avighna Park