Mumbai: Shoppers and theatre-goers at the Infinity Mall in Andheri were evacuated after a major fire broke out on the first floor late on Monday. Ten fire engines and four fire tankers were used to control the fire. Four shops were totally gutted in the fire. No casualty was reported.
Police officials said that at the time of the incident around 1,000 people were present in the mall. All of them were evacuated. While there were reports of some degree of panic among people after the fire announcement was made on the public address system, fire officials said fortunately no human life was lost.
While there was no confirmation on how many shops had been gutted in the fire, officials said property worth several crores may have been destroyed. The exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, fire officials said prime facie short circuit appeared to be the cause of the fire. Fire officials were having difficulty in controlling the spread of smoke in the passageway.
A fire official said the smoke was intense and firemen had to use oxygen mask while performing the rescue operations. An expert committee for recommending fire safety in multiplex buildings had recently recommended that all malls should provide proper ventilation by ventilators to prevent the smoke from spreading.
Fire department officials said that the mall passageway was enclosed with glass and that the ventilation was inadequate. Firemen had to break the glass windows to make way for the smoke out.
Patrons watching shows at the Cinemax multiplex located on the malls third floor were also evacuated. Two shows of Drona, two of Kidnap and one of A Wednesday were on when the incident occurred. Devang Sampat, senior vice president, Cinemax, said, "There were roughly 300 patrons at the multiplex. All were evacuated as a safety measure."
