Massive fire at ED’s Mumbai office doused after 12 hours

A huge fire broke out at the Enforcement Directorate’s office building in south Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday, officials said.

A Mumbai Fire Brigade official said the Level III (major) blaze at Kaiser-I-Hind building in Ballard Estate area was doused around 2.10 pm after a sustained operation of 12 hours.

No one was hurt in the incident. However, officials said several documents and equipment may have been gutted or damaged in the blaze.

The fire, which broke out on the fourth floor of the five-storey building, housing the ED office, raged for hours and was brought under control around 12.15 pm, when it was covered from all sides.

Ravindra Ambulgekar, chief fire officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, said the fire was confined to the fourth floor and mezzanine floor of the building, but the presence of files and furniture intensified it.

Mumbai Fire Bridge upgraded the fire to Level III (major) at around 4.17 am.

Ambulgekar said poor ventilation caused the smoke to get clogged inside the building, which in turn posed great difficulties to firefighters, who had to break down doors and smash windows to gain entry into the structure.

“A probe is on to ascertain the cause of the fire,” he said. The MFB control room said cooling operations were underway. It is a process to ensure the blaze does not get reignited from embers. A senior police official said a short circuit had caused the fire, and furniture, cupboards and electric installations were damaged.

Another police official said ED staffers had visited the spot on Sunday and carried out a thorough inspection of the building. No complaint has been registered by the ED, though the Mumbai police has carried out a detailed panchnama and had taken records, he said. The official said further action from the police’s side will be based on the MFB report, which is yet to come in.

India