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Mumbai, 20 July-2014(PTI): Following the fire at the Andheri highrise on Friday, the BMC, on Saturday, set up a committee to inquire into the matter. Beside loss of life, three floors in the 22-storey glass facade building, Lotus Business Park, were also gutted. As reported earlier, BMC had declared that the fire-fighting equipment in the building were defunct.
Sitaram Kunte to set up probe panel for the building fire in Andheri
Speaking to the media on Saturday, civic chief Sitaram Kunte said: “I have decided to set up a committee under one of the additional municipal commissioners to look into all aspects relating to the building proposals dept and fire brigade. We are going to check whether the owner of the building had followed the then chief fire officer’s remarks issued at the time of issuing OC.”
In addition to the inquiry, BMC chief fire officer will submit an incident-specific report to the civic chief.
The fire brigade has initiated the procedure to revoke the no objection certificate (NOC) issued to the owners of the building in 2008. The dept said it would not issue NOC to the owners until a foolproof fire fighting system is put in place. The dept has already made a communique to the building proposals dept and local ward office in this regard.
“As on Saturday, the OC issued to the structure stands cancelled. The fire dept may have initiated procedure in this regard, but nothing (file) has come to me as of now,” he said, adding that the corporation would also probe into the hoax call the fire brigade received during the rescue operation on Friday. The fire dept has claimed valuable time was wasted after it received a hoax call about a woman being stranded in a lift on the 13th floor.
Meanwhile, BMC has taken charge of the building, and on Saturday disallowed entry to occupants in view of the investigation going on. “Entry will not be allowed until the probe is complete. Besides, electricity to the structure has been cut as cables have burnt to great extent. Supply is unlikely to be restored in the next few days,” an official said.
