Mumbai: A major fire broke out on Sunday from a scrapyard in Mankhurd which engulfed 22 other small scrap shops adjacent to the scrapyard stretched at an area of 1,000 square-foot area reported the sources.
The fire broke out around 2 pm at the Kurla scrapyard at Mandala which continued to engulf the adjacent small shops which had oil, chemical drums and planks stored in them.
A senior civic officer speaking about the incident said that all the shops in the area called as gallas, are illegal and that, “Illegal businesses such as refining oil and selling it in the black market are carried out from this area. This was a disaster waiting to happen, as there are not firefighting safeguards.”
Chief Fire officer P Rahangdale, said, so far no casualties have been reported and that “there are no missing person complaints. The fire spread quickly as the godown had inflammable scrap material, but the fire brigade managed to contain the damage.”
So far the cause of the fire is not known but speculations say inflammable material in the scrapyard could have started the fire. The Investigation team will soon conduct an investigation to determine what exactly started the fire.
The fire brigade team had reportedly used eight fire engines and seven water tankers to contain the fire which took nearly five hours.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the officials from the collector’s department were reportedly demolishing illegal structures in the area for the past one week.