Fadnavis directs Municipal Commissioner to probe fire incident

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today directed Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, to conduct an "in depth" probe into the Kalbadevi fire incident, which left two fire fighters dead and as many seriously injured.
"I am pained to know that two of our firefighters lost their lives in the Kalbadevi fire incident. I salute their fighting spirit and their commitment towards serving people. The state government will fully support their families. I am praying for speedy recovery of injured officials. I have directed the BMC Commissioner to conduct in-depth enquiry," Fadnavis told reporters here.
Two senior Fire officers were killed and as many seriously injured when an old building in South Mumbai caved in on them while they were trying to put out flames that had engulfed it.

The mishap took place when the blaze started at about 4.20 PM yesterday in four-storeyed 'Gokul Nivas', an over a century old commercial-cum-residential building, located in densely-populated Kalbadevi area.
An official from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) said that that on the directives of Commissioner Mehta, a committee has been set up to probe the Gokul House fire incident and submit its report within three weeks.
The committee comprises of Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), Director of Fire Services, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Chief Engineer, Chief Fire Officer and Chief Officer of Disaster Management Cell, MCGM spokesperson Vijay Khabale told PTI.

He said that the committee has been asked to probe the cause of fire, lacunae in mobilisation of human as well as material resources and preparedness, strengthening of methodology to disseminate information to stakeholders and long term measures to be taken for fire safety of old buildings in crowded areas.