Bhiwandi fire LIVE: Rescue operations on; woman who was rescued says 10-15 still trapped

Fire breaks out in residential building at Bhiwandi

Fire broke out this morning in a residential building at the powerloom town of Bhiwandi in Thane district, with about 20 residents rushing to the terrace to escape the blaze.

No casualty was reported so far. However, an elderly woman sustained minor wounds while being rescued, he said.

The blaze occurred in a godown where powerloom-related materials like oil and yarn were stored on the ground floor of three-storey Aam Manzil, a building in a residential locality of Nagaon in Bhiwandi, Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation’s disaster control section chief Namdeo Gaikwad said.

Bhiwandi tehsildar Vaishali Lambhate said that residents took shelter at the terrace of the building after the fire broke out.

Fire tenders from Kalyan, Thane, and four fire stations of Bhiwandi were rushed to the spot and the blaze was brought under control, he said.

About 15-20 people in the building were shifted to the top floor as a precautionary measure since cooling operations were underway on the ground floor, he said.

The fire broke out at around 7.30 am at the godown and spread to other rooms on the ground floor. Presence of oil drums at the place led to the fire spreading in other rooms, he said.

Once the cooling operations are through, those trapped in the building would be brought down, Gaikwad said.

Short-circuit was suspected to be the cause for the blaze. However, the official said the exact cause fore fire was yet to be ascertained.

Senior officials of the civic body, fire brigade and police department were at the spot. 

Fire at four-storey Bhiwandi building doused, all occupants rescued

A fire broke out at a four-storey building that housed a number of garment-manufacturing units, at Bhiwandi in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Tuesday morning. All the 80 occupants of the building have been rescued, authorities said.

Around seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, after which the fire was brought under control.

Bhiwandi tehsildar Vaishali Lambhate said as many as 20 people were earlier shifted to the topmost floor of the building as a precautionary measure, even as cooling operations were undertaken at its lower levels. The fire brigade used hydraulic ladders to evacuate the people trapped inside the building.

#WATCH: Thane (Maharashtra): Fire breaks out at a garment factory in Bhiwandi.Five fire engines present at the spot.https://t.co/I1FbWcdhSl

— ANI (@ANI_news) April 12, 2016

Elaborating on the incident, Lambhate said the fire broke out around 7.30 am and then spread to other rooms on the ground floor. The situation was worsened by the presence of oil barrels in the rooms, he added.

According to unconfirmed reports, the blaze had occurred due to a short-circuit in the building’s electric lines. “There was a sudden fire, followed by a lot of smoke. All the residents ran to the terrace,” said a survivor.

Confirming that there were no casualties, Thane collector Dr Ashwini Joshi said: “It was a massive fire, and 80 people were trapped. But they have all been evacuated safely. We are investigating the cause of the fire.”