Within a few minutes, the entire area was covered in heavy smoke and people started panicking. They couldn't find an exit route and hence most casualties were due to suffocation."
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The MIDC police have arrested two accused in connection with the ESIC Kamgar Hospital fire which claimed eight lives and injured more than 100 on Monday. An FIR in this regard was registered under section 304(a) against the Powai-based Supreme Construction that was working on the new hospital building. Site in-charge Nilesh Mehta and assistant supervisor Nitin Kamble have been arrested for causing death by negligence but no officials from the hospital have been named in the FIR.
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Two welders on the construction site were named in the FIR but have not been arrested so far. Primary facie, the reason for the fire was thought to be the welding sparks from the third floor in the new building of the hospital falling onto the rubber mat on the ground floor.
An officer from the MIDC police station said, "Investigation has established that the fire started from the construction company's storage on the ground floor where insulation material such as rubber mats was stored on which the welding sparks were falling for several hours resulting in a fire. The smoke moved to the old building through the AC duct which wasn't in use owing to the construction. Within a few minutes, the entire area was covered in heavy smoke and people started panicking. They couldn't find an exit route and hence most casualties were due to suffocation."
"The exact cause of fire will be known only after the fire department's report comes out but our primary investigation reveals the construction area as the source of the fire. Thus the contractors have been arrested and reports from the MIDC as well as the BMC are awaited," the police officer added. DCP Zone X Navinchandra Reddy said, "The FIR has been registered under section 304(a) (causing death by negligence), 337, 338, and 34 of the IPC and the relevant sections of Maharashtra Fire Safety Act."
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