Blaze at Mumbai mall doused after 56 hours

Nearly 56 hours after a fire broke out at the City Centre Mall in Mumbai, it was doused by fire personnel early Sunday morning, an official said.

This is probably one of the longest fire-fighting operations in the city in recent times.

Earlier this month, a blaze at a cutlery market in south Mumbai took almost 45 hours to be extinguished.

The fire at the City Centre Mall in Mumbai Central area broke out on the second floor of the basement-plus-three-storey structure at 8.50 pm on Thursday.

"It was a level-5 (massive) blaze and was doused around 5 am on Sunday," a fire brigade official said.

Around 14 fire engines and 17 jumbo tankers were engaged in the operation, he said, adding that cooling operations are underway.

Five fire brigade personnel, including a deputy fire officer, received injuries during the fire-fighting operation, but all of them are stable and discharged from hospitals, the official said.

The fire was initially categorised as level 1 (minor), but was upgraded to level-5 after flames spread to other parts of the building, he said.

Over 3,500 people from an adjacent residential high- rise were evacuated as a precautionary measure, he said.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade had given a 'brigade call', in which fire engines are called from all agencies in the city.