Two flats in Bhoomi Park in Malad caught fire on the fifth day of Ganpati visarjan in Mumbai as residents burst crackers in the compound without ample precaution
Damage to the house on the 7th floor
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Two flats in Malad’s Bhoomi Park caught fire on the fifth day of Ganpati visarjan as residents burst crackers in the compound without ample precaution.
Even as most of the nearly 1,300 residents in 15 buildings have usually not participated in bursting of crackers, a few residents insisted on doing so when participating in a Ganpati procession. When nearing the N wing, they burst rockets that landed in the homes of Rosario D’Mello and Dominic Pereira, causing damage to their personal property.
Negligence leads to damage
D’Mello, who resides on the 6th floor, responded to the fire immediately and managed to douse it even as the fire damaged his balcony and a CPU left there completely. The residents, however, realized that the house above might be in deeper trouble and ran upstairs with D’Mello in tow. Pereira wasn’t home, so residents forced their way into the house to control the fire before it became unmanageable. The fire had managed to reach the living room. Gunjan Bharadwaj, a resident of the complex, said, “Residents had to break open the door to douse the fire, however, excessive smoke made it difficult for them to enter.”
One of the residents involved in dousing the fire, on condition of anonymity, explained, “It was a narrow escape for the residents. Had the fire not been doused on time, it would have led to extensive damage. The family in the 7th floor flat was not home, but the family on the 6th floor has two senior citizens and would have been in trouble if D’Mello hadn’t acted quickly. We managed to douse the fire before the fire brigade reached.”
Advocate Asha Mittal, a resident of the complex, added, “This is a case of negligence. Celebrating festivals at the cost of causing inconvenience to other residents is not acceptable. Even I celebrate Ganpati in my NGO, but we see to it that we do not cause trouble to anybody. Only small fire tenders can enter the compound, so if it was a bigger incident, the building might be in trouble.”
New rule to be implemented
To ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future, a member of the Cultural Group of the complex, said, “We have four societies and 15 wings. We have asked respective societies to take care and restrict the use of all kinds of rockets in the society premises. We also have our Annual General Body meeting coming up where the rules will be discussed in details.”
Police says
Though no official complaint has been filed as yet, Ramchandra Gaikwad, senior police inspector of Charkop police station, said, “We are waiting for the investigation report from the fire officials after which we will take action accordingly.”
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