Three weeks after a fatal fire broke out at Galaxy Hotel in Santacruz, near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) revealed a data which shows that 102 people have lost their lives in fire accidents in the past five years in the city.
According to data from the MFB, the five-year peak for the number of deaths occurred between 2021 and 2022, when 34 people perished in total. This was followed by 20 fatalities between 2019 and 2020 and 18 fatalities between 2020 and 2021.
The MFB's data also reveals that between January and July of this year, the MFB recorded close to 10,000 disaster calls, of which 2,925, or 30%, were related to fire breakout, 4,515, or 45%, requested rescue operations in response to incidents involving houses and buildings collapsing and drowning, and 2,533, or 25%, were classified under the "others" category.
The MFB's data also reveals that at this time in 2022, the MFB received 14,000 emergency calls, of which about 4,000, or 29% had to do with fires and 6,300, or 45% with rescue calls.
This year also, the city and its suburbs witnessed several fire incidents. As per a latest report, on September 11, a fire broke out in a car at Matunga leading to the death of two brothers who were present in the car at that time.
In August 2023, a fire that broke out at Galaxy Hotel led to the death of three people. The same month, an older person lost their life in a fire that erupted in Santacruz (West). In July a senior citizen residing in Ghatkopar succumbed to 100 per cent injuries in a blaze that erupted in her flat.
Meanwhile, in another incident, two people perished in a fire that sparked at a hardware godown at Sakinaka in Andheri (East) in March of this year.
According to the MFB, 18,272 fire incidents have been documented in Mumbai between 2018 and 2023, resulting in 967 injuries in addition to 102 fatalities.
According to Mumbai's Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Ravindra Ambulgekar, less significant fires are breaking out overall. Ravindra said that even though there are more reported fire instances, fewer events result in fatalities. This demonstrates that people are becoming more conscious of safety precautions, and the brigade has also changed its attitude towards conducting rescue missions.
The majority of calls that they receive are for rescue-related situations, including calls for animals and birds that are stuck in trees, on building edges, or in cables that have been installed on power and telephone poles, said Ravindra.
The safe evacuation of the victims, especially from high-rise buildings, has always been a major difficulty in fire incidents, according to the officials.
For rescue operations, Mumbai currently has 35 fire stations and 19 small fire stations. 22 Quick Response Vehicles (QRV) have recently been established at the ward level to handle emergencies involving fires there.
These QRVs are built in such a way that they can navigate the narrow roadways of the city's congested neighborhoods.
Share
Tweet
