Mumbai: Nine of family die in chemist fire

Nine people were killed in a fire that gutted a residential building housed in a medical store in Andheri’s Juhu Gully in the early hours of Thursday. The casualties include five children, with the youngest one being a three-month-old baby, three women and one man from the same family. One of the deceased women was reportedly seven-months pregnant.

The fire occurred at about 6 am on Thursday, in Wafa Medical Stores of Nigam Mistry chawl in Wireless Gulli, Andheri (west). It quickly engulfed the store and spread to the upper floor, where 11 members of the Khan familly, which owns the medical store, were asleep.

The owner, Mozin Khan and his younger son Imtiaz Khan rushed out of their first floor house and tried to douse the fire for 15 minutes before neighbours called the Fire Brigade.

In the meantime, the fire trapped the other members on the first and second floors, as the exit staircase was narrow and ended with a trap door.

The Fire Brigade informed that it received a call at around 6.16 am, and rushed three fire engines, two water tankers and two ambulances to the spot. Residents reported that the fire brigade reached the spot at about 6.30 am. The fire brigade confirmed that its vehicles got stuck as the lane leading to the spot was very narrow. Many shops had made a canopy out of blue plastic sheets in front of their shutters, which was so low that the vehicles of the Fire Brigade had to first pull down the sheets and then enter the lane.

The deceased have been identified as Mozin Khan’s wife Saburiya (52), their son Siddik Khan (35), Siddik’s wife Rabil (28), Siddik’s children Mozel (8) and Unnihay (5) and Imtiaz’s children Aliza (4), Tubba (8), and Altaz (3). The victims were rushed to Cooper Hospital.

Forensic experts from the Cooper Post Mortem Centre where the post-mortems were conducted confirmed that all of the victims died on the spot due to inhaling smoke and not due to burn injuries. The forensic experts preserved the skin and blood samples of the victims and sent it to Kalina Forensic for chemical and DNA analysis.

Imtiaz’s wife Sufiya sustained 45 per cent burn injuries and was rushed to Kasturba Hospital. She succumbed to her injuries on Thursday afternoon. Sufiya was reportedly seven months pregnant.

Fireman Avinash Shirgaonkar sustained a minor cut injury on his hand and was taken to Cooper Hospital. He was treated and released earlier on Thursday.

The family had just returned from reading their prayers at 5 am as part of Ramzan, and had gone back to sleep. Mobeed Shaikh, who lives down the same lane said, “We were all together and awake till about 5 am. Had the fire happened earlier, the family would have survived it.”

The Fire Brigade’s primary investigation revealed that the cause of the fire may have been a short circuit in the makeshift medical store. The fire was confined to electric wiring, electric equipment in the store, items on sale from the store and household items from the first and second floors. The LPG cylinders on the top floors were pulled out by the Fire Brigade. The exact cause of the fire will be ascertained after the police investigation.