What caused the fire to break out in the Kamala Mills complex in Mumbai on 29 December 2017, killing 14 people and injuring 12 others? A fan left switched on next to burning coal meant for hookahs.
According to the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police, the fire began at Mojo’s Bistro and spread to adjacent restaurant-pub ‘1Above’ because of the alleged negligence of a staffer at Mojo’s. What made matters worse was that there was combustible material in both the restaurants, unauthorised construction going on, and the fire exit at 1Above was blocked, The Indian Express reported.
Mojo’s Bistro used to illegally serve hookah on the open terrace. Police said that the hookah manager at the restaurant had four men working under him. They were employed with Nirvana, a company owned by arrested accused Utkarsh Pandey, which supplied hookah services to Mojo’s Bistro, reported The Indian Express.
Narrating how the incident took place, the manager told the police that the arrested accused, Sayyed Ali, 22, was in charge of the counter that day. Every day because they had customers coming till late , the staff would go for dinner breaks in turns. He said he had instructed Ali to switch the fan off, shut the coal grill, and then serve hookah to the customers.
“I turned around and stood near the high table, and within minutes I heard someone yell, ‘fire, run, run.’ I saw that the black curtain next to the hookah counter had caught fire and it had begun spreading rapidly,” he said, IE reported.
The police has filed a chargesheet against the 12 accused – including Ali, the owners, and managers of 1Above, owners of Mojo’s Bistro, and the owners of the Kamala Mills compound.
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