A firefighter suffered burn injuries after a warehouse fire triggered an explosion in Navi Mumbai’s Kalamboli steel market on Saturday night, with officials later finding that several drums of thinner had been stored inside the premises.
Deputy Fire Officer Manish Brahmankar said the fire control room received an alert at around 10.30 pm about a shop catching fire. A fire crew was dispatched to the location, but responders found that the blaze had originated inside a premises operating as both a garage and a warehouse godown.
“Upon arrival we discovered that the fire was not in a shop but rather in a garage and a godown,” Brahmankar said, according to ANI.
An explosion occurred while firefighters were attempting to control the blaze. Brahmankar said emergency responders initially had no information about the chemicals stored inside the premises. Officials later identified several drums containing thinner as the suspected source of the explosion.
One firefighter sustained burn injuries covering around 56 per cent of his body while trying to douse the fire. He was taken to hospital and was undergoing treatment, according to the deputy fire officer.
The incident has also raised questions about the storage of flammable substances inside mixed-use premises in a dense industrial and commercial area. Fire crews responding to the initial alert were reportedly not informed that the location contained chemicals, leaving them to discover the nature of the risk only after reaching the site and beginning firefighting operations.
The owner of the warehouse was reportedly missing after the incident. A report was filed at the police station, Brahmankar said. A preliminary inspection had not established the cause of the fire, and further details were awaited.
The incident highlights the operational difficulty faced by emergency teams when the use of a premises and the materials stored inside it differ from the information available at the time of a fire call. In this case, the location was initially reported as a shop but was found to contain a garage, a warehouse and drums of thinner.
Officials had not announced the outcome of any inspection, action over chemical storage or a confirmed cause of the fire by the time of the report. Police and fire authorities are expected to establish how the premises was being used, who was responsible for the stored material and what led to the blaze.
