Upon arrival, firefighters encountered a fully engulfed factory and were informed by locals that six individuals were trapped inside. Despite the efforts of the rescue team, the bodies of the six people were recovered, as confirmed by Mohan Mungse, a fire officer. The workers were reportedly sleeping inside the building when the fire erupted.
#WATCH | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra: Fire breaks out in a factory in the Waluj MIDC area. Operations to douse the fire are underway. Further details awaited. pic.twitter.com/mY9ChJv8n8
— ANI (@ANI) December 30, 2023
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“We received a call at 2:15am. When we reached the incident site, the entire factory was on fire. Locals informed us that six people were trapped inside. Our officers entered and the bodies of six people have been recovered,” Mohan Mungse, a fire officer, told ANI.
Locals identified four of the trapped workers as Bhulla Shaikh (65), Kausar Shaikh (26), Iqbal Shaikh (26), and Magroof Shaikh (25).
The operation to extinguish the fire was ongoing at the time of reporting. The exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined. Initial reports suggested that 10-15 workers were inside the building during the incident, and some managed to escape, while at least five were trapped.
“10-15 workers were sleeping inside the building when the fire broke out. Some managed to escape, but at least five were trapped inside,” one of the workers had told ANI.
This incident follows another fire that occurred on Thursday, where a chemical factory in Navi Mumbai was destroyed. The blaze, which erupted in the Taloja MIDC area, required the deployment of twelve fire engines to bring it under control after an eight-hour operation. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.