Mumbai: In a laudable effort, the Mumbai Fire Brigade rescued 33 persons, including two newborn infants, from a five-storeyed building here which was engulfed in a major fire on Saturday, the BMC Disaster Control said.
The blaze was reported from the Saki Society in Sakinaka, Andheri East, at around 9 a.m. which left the residents trapped on various floors, even as anxious people in the neighbourhood gathered and attempted to help out.
The fire apparently broke out in an electric meter box cabin located on the ground floor, caught the wiring, installations, electrical panel boards and other items, and quickly spread to the upper floors of the residential building.
The scared and screaming residents were stuck on different floors as the dense and blinding toxic smoke blocked the staircase while the terrace was locked.
A Mumbai Fire Brigade team, equipped with sophisticated equipment and ladders rushed to the building and launched the evacuation operations while fighting the conflagration.
Within an hour, they brought down 7 people from the first floor, 14 plus 2 newborn infants from the second floor, and 10 more from the third and fourth floors using angus ladders and the staircase.
Finally, around 10.45 am, the blaze was also extinguished and now the cooling operations are underway, and there were no injuries in the tragedy, said the BMC Disaster Control.
—IANS