7 injured in Kalbadevi fire

While the rest of the city was busy getting ready to bring in the New Year, for seven workers of Badmadi Gold, a jewellery-manufacturing unit at Kalbadevi, it was anything but a celebration, after a fire broke out in the premises.u00a0

Sapal Ravidas(28), Khobir Das(27), Chandan Mandal (34), Rohit Rajat(26), Khogen Mandal(23), Sachin Dulai(23) and Jayant Jayanto were the injured workers who were first rushed to Saifee Hospital at Girgaon, the nearest hospital in the area for preliminary treatment and later moved to Masina Hospital, Byculla. Dulai and Ravidas are critical.

The fire department received a call about the fire at around 4.23 pm.u00a0Dr SJ Bapai from Saifee hospital said, "The patients came to our casualty ward and we gave them first-aid treatment. As most had suffered major burns, we shifted them to Masina hospital, which specialises in burns."

One of the injured has suffered 50 per cent burns and has been admitted to JJ Hospital, Byculla for further treatment. The others, who sufferedu00a020 to 40 per cent burns are recuperating at Masina Hospital.The injured are aged between 20-35.u00a0

u00a0Though investigations are still on to find out the exact cause of the fire, BMC's Chief Fire Officer Hassan Mujawar said, "The incident took place when two workers were filling lighter fluid into a cigarette lighter (an ancillary business at the jewellery manufacturing unit). There was a leak and it caused a small blast. It was a minor incident, but seven people are seriously injured."