Firefighting operation continued on Saturday at the godowns in Mumbai's Mankhurd scrapyard where a fire broke out on Friday afternoon. As many as 19 fire tenders and 11 water tankers were deployed to the site and fire personnel continued to battle the blaze, which has not yet been doused till the early hours of Saturday.
Residents of the area said that no causality has been reported but there are damages to the property. The fire has not been doused and fire authorities are struggling to extinguish the flames. "This is not the first time that this place has caught fire," said Vinod Gupta, a local.
Another resident Nandlal Gupta said that there were numerous godowns in the area that store used oil, which acts as fuel for fires. There are several scrap godowns in Mandala area, which is located close to the dumping ground.
"We don't know how the fire started but there are a lot of godowns in the area that are used to store burnt oil. This area is mostly inhabited by daily wage labourers who ran away once the fire began," said Nandlal.
A major fire broke out at a scrapyard in suburban Mankhurd here on Friday, in which a 40- year-old fire brigade officer suffered minor injuries during the firefighting operation. The blaze erupted in Mandala, a slum-dominated area in the eastern suburb, around 2.45 pm.
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the spot to take stock of the firefighting operation.
"Efforts are being made to ensure that the fire does not spread to nearby hutmets," she said.
The place where the fire broke out is located on the Mumbai suburban district collector's land, she said.
"Complaints had been registered with the collector office by the civic body''s K-West ward officer and local corporator from time to time about the illegal storage of oil barrels at the place," Pednekar said.
"Even action had been taken against in this connection with the help of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the police in the past, but the local land mafia again set up their dens as soon as the authorities return," the mayor said.
According to fire brigade, a fire is tagged level-3, when at least 12 fire engines are engaged in firefighting. There are total five levels of fire and 'Brigade call' is the highest level of emergency, the officials said.
Also Read: Massive fire erupts at Mumbai's Mankhurd area, several fire tenders rushed to spot | Watch
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