Mumbai high-rise fire kills six

Fire-fighters trying to douse the fire (Pic: Imtiyaz Shaikh, Anadolu Agency)

MUMBAI (AA) - Six people were killed in an apartment fire at a 26-storey building in upmarket Kemps Corner area in South Mumbai, India, fire officials said.

At least six firefighters were injured and they were rushed to nearby Breach Candy hospital.

Fourteen fire engines and four ambulances were dispatched to contain the blaze as dozens of firefighters battled for two hours to douse the fire that broke out at the 12th floor.

There is only one exit out of the building and smoke in the staircase prevented the residents from coming down, a fire official said on the condition of anonymity.

The residents of 14th and 15th floors of the building were evacuated and moved to the top floor, said the fire official.

The cause of the fire is not known yet, the official added.

Press Trust of India quoted a resident of the building as saying that fire spread across the floor due to multiple gas cylinder blasts.

The building was reportedly equipped with fire-fighting apparatus.

"We were sitting in the garden at around 7 pm when the fire spread. Few people could come down and then the elevators stopped working. The cylinders that were in the passageway exploded and the fire spread. We called the fire fighters around 7:20 pm and the first fire engine arrived around 8:15 pm," NDTV, an English-language news channel quoted a woman who lives in the building as saying.

Mumbai, India’s financial capital, has the largest number of high-rises in the country.

In November, a massive fire in a seven-storey building killed four in Vikhroli, a Mumbai suburb.

Anadolu Agency, December 13, 2013