A fire engulfed the third floor of the Exchange Building in the Ballard Estate area of south Mumbai on Wednesday. There have been no injuries reported so far and the building has been evacuated. Eight fire tenders and three water tankers were rushed to the site and the fire is now reportedly under control.
“People have been evacuated, the fire is almost under control. The cooling operations will take six to eight hours. It is probably a short circuit because it is monsoon in Mumbai and there is a lot of water percolation and short circuit calls are very often. The exact cause will be investigated separately,” MV Deshmukh, Director of the Maharashtra Fire Services told CNN-IBN.
CNN-IBN quotes eyewitnesses saying the fire broke out at around 11: 30 am this morning after an air-conditioner exploded, however Mumbai Fire Brigade officials said that the cause of the fire could be a short circuit.
“We started running once we sensed something was wrong and then the smell of smoke alerted us,” an unnamed eyewitness said.
The building houses offices of the Narcotics Control Bureau, Directorate of Census Operations, Consumer Office among others. The Ballard Estate area of south Mumbai is located close to the business district in South Mumbai.
Here are some previous incidents of fire in Mumbai:
7 June: IBL House in MIDC, Andheri, caught fire at around midnight killing four people and injuring nine others
4 April: An apartment in Marol, Andheri East, caught fire, Andheri (east)
17 September 2012: A BEST sub-station caught fire near Manish Market, 1 fireman injured
7 September 2012: The FIFC building caught fire in Bandra-Kurla complex
9 August 2012: An apartment building next to Haji Ali shrine caught fire in Tardeo
21 June 2012: A massive fire engulfed Mumbai’s Mantralaya (FP)
