Mumbai Restaurant Fire Kills at Least 14
29, 2017
NEW DELHI — A fire tore through an upscale commercial building on Friday in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, killing
at least 14 people, including women attending a birthday party at a rooftop restaurant, a hospital official said.
The police said the fire started on an upper floor before quickly engulfing the building’s rooftop restaurants, 1 Above
and Mojo’s Bistro, where more than 100 people had gathered, including a large group of women in their 20s and 30s attending a birthday party.
Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located, said he had ordered a full investigation into the cause of the fire, writing on Twitter
that "strong action" would be taken against "erring officials." India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said that he was "anguished" by the fire.
People were running all over me." By the time firefighters gained control of the blaze in the early morning hours on Friday, three men
and eleven women had died from suffocation, a hospital official said, includinga 28-year-old woman celebrating her birthday.
In July, the police in Mumbai arrested a man affiliated with a local political party for making illegal alterations to a five-story building
that caused it to collapse and kill at least 17 people.
Safety regulations are rarely enforced in Mumbai, home to more than 18 million people,
especially in older buildings, where fires and building collapses are common.
The injured were brought to King Edward Memorial Hospital and Sion Hospital in Mumbai.
