Page 8 - Fire Safety

Police arrest 3 in connection with deadly fire at Dhaka shopping mall

Bangladesh police have arrested three persons, including two owners of a restaurant, in connection with the massive fire that broke out at a shopping mall in the capital Dhaka that killed at least 46 people. The fire broke out around 9:50 pm on Thursday at the restaurant named Kacchi Bhai on the first floor of the building, Green Cozy Cottage, and quickly spread to the upper floors that had more restaurants and a garment shop, according to fire service officials. Two owners of an eatery called Chumuk and the manager of Kacchi Bhai restaurant were arrested on Friday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Additional Commissioner Kh Mahid Uddin said. He said, The fire started from the food shop on the ground floor of the building. The police will file a case over negligence in connection with the deaths in the fire incident. Besides, anyone from the victim's family can file a case if they want, said the police official. At least 46 people were killed, and over 20 others sustained severe injuries

Fire at seven-storey building in Bangladesh's capital kills at least 44

A fire at a seven-storey building in the central part of the Bangladesh capital overnight has killed at least 43 people and left 22 others injured, Health Minister Dr Samanta Lal Sen said on Friday. The condition of those injured is "critical", he told reporters at a briefing here at 2 am. The fire broke out around 9:50 pm on Thursday at a restaurant on the building's first floor and quickly spread to the upper floors that had more restaurants and a garment shop, according to fire service officials. They said 75 people, including 42 in unconscious state, were taken out of the seven-storey building. Thirteen fire service units were mobilised, the officials said. "Thirty-three people died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and 10 at (the nearby) Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery," Sen said. The minister, a burn wound specialist, said 22 people are being treated at both the health facilities and their condition is "critical". "The respiratory sys

In case of fire, break glass ceiling: Pune to get first lady firefighter

Breaking the gender barrier, 26-year-old Meghana Sakpal is set to become the first woman to join Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) fire brigade department. Firefighting seems to run in her family as her grandfather was a fireman and her father, Mahendra Sakpal, currently serves as a fire personnel. "I grew up listening to the tales of my grandfather's and father's heroic feats during firefighting in the city. They inspired me. I am very proud that I am the first woman to join the fire department of the Pune corporation," Meghana told PTI on Thursday. Until now, only Mumbai had women firefighters in Maharashtra. A commerce graduate, Meghana began to prepare for her dream job in 2019. After clearing online examinations and physical tests, she went to Mumbai for training, which was briefly interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But she completed the training in November 2022. She had initially applied for a job with the Mumbai fire department, but could not clear the physical test. .

Delhi's Alipur fire probe: Two, including factory owner's son, arrested

Days after 11 people died in a fire at a paint factory here, two persons, including the factory owner's son, were arrested in connection with the incident on Saturday, police said. The accused have been identified as Akhil Jain (37), the son of factory owner Ashok Jain, who died in the fire, and Rajrani, who owns the land on which the factory was situated, they said. Besides Ashok Jain, 10 workers died in the fire that broke out in the factory in outer Delhi's Alipur area on the evening of February 15. The fire was preceded by a blast and soon it spread to nearby buildings, including a drug rehabilitation centre and eight shops. According to the FIR registered in the matter, a huge quantity of inflammable material was found inside the factory. Earlier, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had said that the building where the fire broke out was being used illegally for the purpose of mixing chemical paint. The FIR was registered on a complaint by Sub-Inspector Anil Kumar of Al

15 commercial units, houses damaged due to fire in Mumbai's Govandi

Around 15 commercial units and some houses were damaged in a fire that broke out in a chawl in Mumbai's Govandi area early on Saturday, in which nobody was reported injured, an official said. The fire brigade received a call at 3.55 am, which alerted it about the blaze, he said. "Around 15 galas (commercial units) on the ground floor and some houses on the first floor were damaged in the fire that broke out in a chawl at Bainganwadi in Adarsh Nagar area of Govandi," the fire brigade official said. The fire engulfed some electrical wiring and installations, plastic sheets, household items, wooden planks and furniture, among other things, he said, adding that attempts to douse the flames were underway. Some water tankers along with an ambulance were rushed to the spot. Nobody was found injured and the exact cause of the fire is yet to be known, the official added.

Death toll in Delhi's Alipur market fire rises to 11, four injured

The death toll in an explosion and subsequent fire in a paint factory in outer Delhi's Alipur area has climbed to 11 with four more bodies recovered from the premises, police said on Friday. Four people were injured in the fire that broke out on Thursday evening and are undergoing treatment at a hospital, they said. The charred bodies of the 11 victims were recovered from the factory, which also houses chemical godowns, located in Alipur's Dayalpur market, a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said. The fire was preceded by a blast and soon it spread to nearby buildings, including a drug rehabilitation centre and eight shops. The DFS official said a call about the fire was received around 5:30 pm on Thursday and 22 fire tenders were pressed into service. The blaze was brought under control by 9 pm, he said, adding that 11 charred bodies were recovered from the factory premises. In a post on X, DFS chief Atul Garg said, "Despite best efforts by DFS, 11 labours died in paint factory

Highlights of the day: Budget session to be extended by a day till Feb 10

Updates: From CM Dhami tabling the UCC Bill in the Uttarakhand assembly to the devastating wildfires in Chile, catch all the latest updates from around the world here

Hundreds of people missing as death toll from Chile's wildfires reaches 123

Volunteers in central Chile tried to remove charred metal, broken glass and other debris Monday from neighbourhoods devastated by wildfires over the past several days, as officials raised the death toll to 122. Hundreds of people remain missing. The fires appeared to have diminished by Monday morning after burning intensely since Friday on the eastern edge of the city of Vina del Mar. Two other towns in the Valparaso region, Quilpe and Villa Alemana, also have been hit hard, and President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday that at least 3,000 homes had been burnt down in the area. An additional 10 victims were added to the death toll on Monday afternoon, bringing it to 122, said Marisol Prado, the director of Chile's Forensic Medical Service. Prado said that many bodies were in bad condition and difficult to identify, but added that forensic workers would be taking samples of genetic material from people who have reported missing relatives. Via del Mar's Mayor Macarena Ripamonti said tha

Fire set off by a gas explosion in Kenya kills 3 people, injures 280 others

A truck loaded with liquid petroleum gas cylinders exploded in a depot in the Kenyan capital and set off a late-night inferno that rapidly spread and burned homes and warehouses, killing at least three people and injuring 280, officials said Friday. The death toll was expected to rise. At least 24 people were critically injured, the Kenya Red Cross said, after a huge fireball erupted from the gas depot. Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of metres (feet), sparking separate fires in the neighbourhood. The truck was parked inside a gas cylinder storage and filling site that had multiple applications to operate there rejected last year because it was too close to residential areas, Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said, raising questions over whether it was operating illegally. The government knew this liquid petroleum gas plant was existing in a residential area but they did nothing, local resident Charles Mainge said. They should make sure this doesn't happen .

Four killed as fire breaks out in ground floor of house in Delhi's Shahdara

Four people, including an infant, died of suffocation and two were injured when a major fire broke out in a house on the ground floor of a multi-storey building in Delhi's Shahdara area on Friday, police said. A call was received at 5:22 pm about a blaze in a house in the Shahdara area, fire officials said. "Five fire tenders were pressed into service and the blaze was doused by 6:55 pm. Rubber material like wipers and a rubber-cutting machine kept in a house on the ground floor of the building had caught fire," said Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg. Police and fire officials rescued six people from the building and rushed them to GTB Hospital, he said. A senior police officer said after receiving information about the fire in the building, police personnel rushed to the spot and managed to rescue three people with the help of locals. They were taken to the hospital in a PCR van, he said. After fire officials reached the spot, they rescued three more people, including a

Six die, 1 injured as fire breaks out in multi-storey building in Delhi

Six people were charred to death and one was injured when a fire broke out in a multi-storey building in northwest Delhi's Pitampura area on Thursday evening, officials said. The cause of the fire, which broke out on the first floor of the building, is yet to be ascertained, they said. A call was received at 8 pm about the blaze at plot no. 37, ZP block, Pitampura and eight fire tenders were pressed into service, the fire officials said. Seven people were rescued with the help of local police and rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital. Six of them, including four women, were declared dead at the hospital, a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said. Another DFS officer said the fire was doused in an hour and the cooling operation was underway. A police officer said the fire broke out on the first floor of the building and the smoke engulfed the three floors above it. According to preliminary information, those killed in the incident were from two different families. The deceased were

Four killed after train travelling from town bordering India set on fire

At least four people were killed and many injured after suspected arsonists set on fire a passenger train coming from the port town of Benapole, bordering India, in the country's national capital on Friday, two days ahead of Bangladesh's general elections that have been boycotted by the main opposition BNP, officials said. The incident happened around 9 pm when four carriages of the Benapole Express that runs from Benapole, a town bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, were set on fire as it nearly reached its destination of the capital's Kamalapur Railway Station. "So far we have found four bodies . . . searches are still underway," Shahjahan Shikdar, the spokesman of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told newsmen at the scene. Railway officials said that most of the train's nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India and the train was set on fire at 9 PM as it reached the Gopibagh area near the station. When we tried to bring out a middle-aged man through a window of t

Major fire in pathology lab building in Delhi's Rohini; nobody injured

A major fire broke out in a pathology laboratory in north Delhi's Rohini late last night, the fire department said on Monday. No one was reported injured. Officials said that the fire broke out on the third and fourth floor of a building which housed the pathology lab. The fire was reported to the department around 12.45 am. "Total 10 fire engines were rushed to the spot immediately. It took more than two hours to douse the flames completely. The fire was near the lift shaft. No one was injured in the fire," an official of the Delhi Fire Service said. The person said that the police have been informed for further investigation into the matter.

Fire destroys factory in Maharashtra's Thane district; no injuries

A fire destroyed a factory in an industrial pocket in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Friday. No one was injured in the fire that broke out at the packaging unit at Taloja MIDC area around 8.30 pm on Thursday, he said. An official from the Taloja fire station said local firemen and others from neighbouring fire stations rushed to the spot and controlled the blaze. While the fire destroyed the factory, its cause is being probed, he added.

Maharashtra govt woke up only after court order: HC on fire safety rules

The Maharashtra government did not take any step and woke up only after the court issued an order, the Bombay High Court censured it on Friday, after it was informed that the notification for fire safety rules and regulations would be issued by May 2024. The high court earlier this week came down heavily on the state government for dragging its feet on the implementation of fire safety rules and regulations despite a report submitted by an expert committee in February this year. The court had sought to know from the Principal Secretary of the State Urban Development Department a timeline by when the notification would be issued. On Friday, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan submitted to a division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor that by May 2024 the mandated procedure would be completed and the final notification would be issued. The bench, while accepting this statement, remarked that had the government acted on the committee's report in ...

Fire erupts in Mumbai high-rise residential building; 135 people rescued

A fire broke out in a 24-storey residential building in Mumbai on Thursday following which at least 135 people were safely rescued from there, civic officials said. The blaze erupted at 3.40 am on the third floor of the building located in New Hind Mill Compound at MHADA colony in Ghodapdeo area where government has given flats to people, mainly mill workers, they said. The fire was confined to the electric meter cabin, wiring, cable, scrap material in the electric duct, garbage and material in garbage duct from 1st to 24th floor of the building, a civic official said. He said at least 135 people were safely rescued from different floors of the building. Out of them, 25 were evacuated from the terrace, 30 from a refuge area on the 15th floor, and 80 people from a refuge area on the 22nd floor of the building, he said. Five fire engines and three water tankers along with other fire brigade vehicles were rushed to the spot after receiving the call and the blaze was doused by 7.20 am

Pharma firm asked to stop production after death of 11 in fire at its plant

Pharmaceutical firm Blue Jet Healthcare has been ordered to stop production and remove inflammable chemical goods from its premises after a fire in its factory in Maharashtra's Raigad district killed 11 labourers early this month, said the local administration on Wednesday. The action has been taken by the district administration on recommendation of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)'s Raigad unit. Eleven workers were killed and seven others injured when a fire broke out at the company's plant in the Mahad MIDC area on November 3. The company has been ordered to stop production and remove inflammable chemical goods from its premises within a period of 72 hours, according to a notice issued by Deputy Collector (Mahad) J S Hajare. In a separate action, the Deputy Collector has asked two companies -- Sanika Chemical and V N Creative -- to stop production for causing water pollution, leading to large-scale death of fish in a drain. On November 9, thousands of fish ...

Toll in fire mishap in apartment building rises to 10, building owner held

The toll in a major fire in a residential building in the Nampally area here on November 13 rose to ten, after a 17-year-old, who was injured in the accident succumbed to his injuries, police said on Saturday. Ten people were found in an unconscious state in different floors of the apartment complex, which has ground and four upper floors and as smoke quickly engulfed the stairwell of the only available staircase, the inmates in the upper floors were not able to climb down and got trapped in smoke and fire which caused deaths, police and fire department officials had earlier said. Nine people belonging to two families were killed in the incident while the 17-year-old, who suffered over 70 per cent burns was admitted to a state-run hospital where he died on Friday evening, they said. The officials had said due to a "short circuit" the fire broke out initially in the stilt floor of the building, where chemicals in plastic drums and other flammable materials were stored in an ...

Major fire in East Delhi's building, woman dead, 25 people rescued

A 40-year-old woman died in a major fire at a building in East Delhi's Shakarpur on Tuesday while 26 people were rescued, officials said here. They said the fire started in its parking area in the early hours of the day and engulfed the entire structure. A woman died in the fire while 26 people, along with two pets, were rescued by the Delhi Fire Service, the officials said, adding that some people jumped off the windows to save themselves. All of them were rushed to a hospital, they said. "We got a fire call at about 1.05 am... We immediately pressed three fire engines to service. Later, five more fire engines were rushed to the spot. The matter was informed to the police immediately," an official of the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said.

'Can't turn blind eye': Delhi HC orders strict enforcement of fire norms

Asserting that it cannot turn a blind eye to potential violation of fire norms, the Delhi High Court has directed the city government authorities to conduct regular checks at Azad Market to identify the violators and refer them to the Fire Prevention Wing. A bench headed by Chief Jusice Satish Chandra Sharma, in an order passed on Monday, directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Fire Services to ensure scrupulous and rigorous enforcement of fire safety norms. The court's order came on a public interest litigation by Azad Market Residents Welfare Association for action against unauthorised and illegal constructions in the north Delhi market. The petitioner contended there were buildings in the area that were constructed in violation of the applicable bylaws and fire safety norms resulting in fire accidents and loss of human lives. The court said the grievance raised by the petitioner was sufficiently addressed by the MCD which cleared the area of unauthorised and ..