Mumbai eyewitness says called fire brigade at 3.06 am, got no response

Seven people died in a fire at Mumbai's Jay Bhavani building in Goregaon, on Friday morning. The Maharashtra government said it will form a high-level probe panel that will submit its report within 15 days. Meanwhile, an eye-witness told the news agency ANI that more lives could have been saved had the local fire brigade swiftly responded to his call placed at 3.06 am.

The eye-witness, Manish Chaturvedi, told the agency he noticed the fire at 2.45 am when he was sleeping. He alleged the fire department didn't respond to his call at 3.06 am.

"The incident occurred at 2.30 am-3 am. I had returned from a party around 1.30 am and was sleeping. Suddenly, around 2.45 am I could sense a burning smell in the air. I woke up and first searched my room. I then woke my brother up. We then saw the smoke rising...We then called up the fire brigade. I was able to place a call at 3.06 am but there was no response from the other side," he told the agency.

"I think had they been alert the loss would not have been this much. Police did arrive on time...The situation was very heart-rending," he added.

The fire was categorised as Level 2 by the fire department.

Those trapped on the upper floors were rescued.

Another eye-witness told PTI that they were unable to breathe and were contemplating jumping out of the window.

“I have a kidney ailment, so my family members were more worried about me. I was breathing heavily. It felt like being smothered, I wanted to vomit,” she said.

“We contemplated jumping out of the window to save our lives. My father even tried doing that many times but we stopped him,” she added.

The family was rescued by the fire department after an hour.

With inputs from ANI, PTI