Navi Mumbai: A major fire broke out at a third floor 3BHK apartment in a 13-storey Shree Ravechi Heights in sector 7, Kharghar in the vicinity of Kharghar police station on Wednesday afternoon. Fortunately, no casualty has been reported as the family residing at the apartment was not home and the Kharghar and Kalamboli fire brigade teams prevented the fire from spreading to the other apartment on the third floor and on the upper floors.Saurabh Patil (35), a station fire officer at Kharghar who had reached the third floor by staircase for fighting fighting operation in the third floor apartment, without wearing a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) suffered from mild suffocation due to the dense fire smoke filled in the floor. He was rushed downstairs by the fire fighters and provided with an oxygen mask. He is reportedly stable.Pravin Bodkhe, chief fire officer of Panvel said, “The fire call was received at Kharghar fire station at 15.34 pm informing that a fire broke out at apartment number 301 in A-wing. The fire fighters team with two fire engines reached the spot within 5 minutes. The building’s operational fire hydrant system’s hose reel was used to connect to fire engine for fire fighting operation. A fire engine and water tanker from Kalamboli assisted in fire fighting.a Kharghar police station’s Ajay Kamble and his team was also present at the spot to ensure that the residents are rescued. Due to the dense fire smoke, we faced some difficulty to extinguish the fire. The fire smoke was cleared by using the exhaust fan in our QRV (Quick Response Vehicle) and using the SCBA apparatus, the fire fighters entered the apartment and continuously sprayed water jet completely extinguished the fire.”Fire officer Bodkhe said, “While carrying out fire fighting, simultaneously around 25 residents were evacuated to safety. After completely dousing the fire after three hours of fire fighting operation, the MSEB technicians were told to resume power supply only after thorough inspection. Thereafter, the apartment owner Mudit Bhatnagar was allowed to enter his apartment. However, the 3BHK apartment got completely charred in the blaze. Bhatnagar’s son claimed that the fire breakout might have been due to a short circuit in the outdoor AC unit in the master bedroom, which is been ascertained by MSEB.”
