Fires killed 33, injured 300 in Mumbai in 2023; city saw 15% more incidents over 2022

Mumbai: As many as 33 persons were killed and about 300 injured in over 5,000 fires in Mumbai last year, according to the city’s fire brigade. Experts have batted for stricter rules and implementation of fire safety regulations to reduce loss of life and property.

The country’s financial capital reported 5,074 fire incidents last year, a rise of 15 per cent over 4,417 such cases in the metropolis in 2022, said the Mumbai Fire Brigade.

Of the fires reported in the city between January 1 and December 31 last year, the month of November, when Diwali was celebrated, saw the highest at 655. It was followed by 519 incidents in February and 503 incidents in June, as per the data.

The blaze at the Jay Bhavani SRA building at Goregaon in Western Mumbai was one of the biggest fire incidents in the recent past. The incident in October 2023 claimed eight lives and left several others injured.

Among last year’s other such big incidents was the fire at Veena Santoor building in Borivali West in which three people lost their lives and a few others were injured on October 20.

As per fire brigade’s data, the city has registered a significant rise in the number of fire incidents, casualties, and injuries in 2023 as compared to the previous year.

The metropolis had reported 4,417 incidents in 2022 in which 13 people lost their lives and 160 were injured. In 2021, as many as 19 people had died and 173 people were injured in 4,065 fire incidents.

In the last three years, almost 65 people have lost their lives, including 33 in 2023, in fire incidents and scores of others have been injured. Fire brigade officials and fire experts have advocated for stricter rules and the implementation of fire safety regulations.

RN Ambulgekar, chief fire officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade, said that about 80 per cent of the total fire incidents in the city occur due to electrical failures, stressing the need for electrical audits and IoT-based (Internet of Things) systems.

“We need mandatory electrical audits and IoT-based systems, which give prior indications of electrical failures in buildings to prevent future fire incidents,” Ambulgekar said in an official statement.

He added that the Mumbai civic body is coordinating with the Energy Department and pushing for mandatory incorporation of electrical audits of buildings.

Dr Deepak Monga, a fire safety and evacuation expert, said that an evacuation lift, an electrical audit, and maintenance of fire safety equipment will prove helpful in assisting firefighters during fire emergencies.

“Having a fire evacuation lift will assist firefighters in moving with more ease vertically through a building and rapid evacuation of occupants in a fire emergency in high-rises,” Monga said.

He further said that for builders, the new evacuation lift guidelines will be an added advantage as they save FSI costs, increase saleable space, and also raise safety standards.