Major fire engulfed a six-storey building in Kalina

A major fire broke out in a six-storey commercial building in Kalina area of Santacruz on Friday afternoon. No casualties or injuries were reported. The incident occurred around 1:30 pm at the Diamond Square near Kalina University. The fire started from the left wing of the building and destroyed the left facade of the building. It later spread across the upper floors, said officials. “It seems that the fire might have been caused by a short circuit from the electrical installations on the first and second floor,” said Chief Fire Officer Uday Tatkare. “The building did not have any fire fighting system,” say officials. “There was no fire detection equipment in the building.” “According to the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act 2006, new buildings that are above 15-meter should have a well-equipped fire safety system based on the height of the building, occupancy of the building and the fire hazards. This building is around 22 metre tall,” said a fire official. The new law does not specify that how should the old buildings equip themselves with fire-fighting system, he said.
“Employees working in the building were able to evacuate safely. The building has two staircases on either sides,” said Tatkare. “Many employees were outside the building as it was lunch hour. As soon as we saw the fire from outside, we alerted all the people inside,” said Sudhir Panchal, an employee of an office in the building. Panic spread in the adjacent Golden Square residential complex minutes after the fire broke out. However, quick thinking saved the rapidly-spreading fire from reaching the neighbouring premises. "Some youngsters from our building ran out the minute they saw the fire and took cars out of the Diamond Square complex. Some glass structures had to be broken to take the cars out. Had the cars not been taken out of the complex, they would have caught fire and the flames would have spread to our building as well," said a resident.