At least 60 shops, including the ones vending perfumes, dry fruits and packing material, were gutted, when a massive fire swept through the congested Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandai - better known as the famous Crawford Market - at Fort in downtown south Mumbai, in the early hours of Sunday. Fortunately, there were no causalities in the mishap.
The fire, which broke out at 5.19 am, soon engulfed “50 to 60” shops spread in a 200 sq meter area at the 146-year-old Crawford market. The blaze raged for more than three and half hours.
Immediately afterwards, 10 fire engines and eight water tankers rushed to the scene. The fire brigade personnel discontinued power supply from the nearby BEST sub-station to the market before they began the extinguishing operations.
“No one was injured in the mishap. We extinguished the fire fully at around 9 am,” a senior fire brigade official said.
The structures that were gutted in the blaze were shops vending perfumes, dry fruits, chocolates, food grains, packing materials, electrical wires, packing material, umbrellas and resin.
The Victorian-era market, which was initially named after then Bombay’s first Municipal Commissioner Arthur Crawford and later renamed after renowned social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, is located in the vicinity of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).
The cause of fire has not been established yet. “Our personnel and the local police are jointly investigating the cause as well as the circumstances leading to the fire,” the fire brigade officer said.
Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta visited the mishap site and inspected the fire-extinguishing operations.
It was the second major fire mishap witnessed in the Crawford Market area in recent years. As many as 350 shops had been gutted, when a massive ripped through the Sara-Sahara shopping complex, Manish market and neighbouring Mohata market, all located a stone’s throw away from the Mumbai Police Commissionerate, on November 26, 2011.