Fire Breaks Out in Mumbai’s Jia Building, No Casualties Reported

Barely 10 days after the Kamala Mills fire which left 14 dead, the city still appears stumped by fire safety.

A fire broke out in Mumbai’s Jia building on the city’s Bellasis Road. The fire reportedly originated from the building’s basement on the afternoon of 5 January.

The BMC control room reported that it was a level-III fire. The Jia building houses a go-down on its ground floor. While some reports claimed the fire began in the basement, other sources said that it originated on the ground floor.

This comes barely 10 days after the Kamala Mills fire in Mumbai that took the lives of 14 people on 28 December, and just a day after Mumbai’s Marol fire that killed 4.

Fire tenders and water tankers were rushed to the spot and the Jia building fire was reportedly doused safely. The occupants of the building were safely evacuated and no casualties have been reported in the incident so far.

The Kamala Mills fire, which shook up Mumbai, put the spotlight on the city’s fire safety standards. In the instance of the Kamala Mills Fire, a report revealed that just five days before the fire that took 14 lives, the fire department had issued a No Objection Certificate stating that the structure was safe and did not violate any safety norms. This, despite the structure violating several safety norms and structural laws.

Over 15 fires were reported in residential and commercial buildings in Mumbai in 2017 alone.

Zee News reported that the Jia building fire was doused safely, but the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

(With inputs from Mumbai Live, and India.com)

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