Fire gutted nearly 1,000 houses in the Anand Nagar slum in Appa Pada, Malad East, and killed one person on Monday, officials said. Rescue operations continued late into the night. Firefighters are struggling to reach the forest, where the fire started, due to narrow roads.

The body was sent to the HBT Trauma Care Center and an investigation is underway to find the injured and missing persons, officials said.

Witnesses said in the afternoon that residents of the slopes heard several cylinder explosions during the day and fled their homes, which are located near a forest. Firefighters brought the fire under control at 7pm and began working on cooling.

“The fire was confined to 800 to 1,000 square meters over 10,000 meters. About 15 to 20 cylinder blasts occurred,” said a fire official.

Bapu Santish Borade, a resident of Sainath chawl committee, Ambedkar Nagar, Appa pada, said, "I was in my office when I got a call from my wife about the fire. Only my wife and son were there. house, I told them to leave the house immediately to a safe place. My wife, with the help of our neighbors, removed the gas cylinder and left the area. The fire destroyed all our things.

Try to navigate

The fire broke out around 4:45 p.m., but it was difficult for firefighters to reach the area due to the narrow road and topography. Authorities declared it a level three fire at 5:15 p.m. and dispatched additional fire engines to the scene.

midday also saw the challenges faced by the police and firemen while crossing the road, as the road from the Western Express Highway, leading to Appa pada, was narrow. The highway became more crowded at night.

Vinod Mishra, a former corporal from Malad, said, "Many of the houses destroyed by the fire were years ago on private land and few of those houses were on forest land."

Registered SGNP

A police officer, asking not to be named, said: 'The firemen and the police did everything possible to prevent the fire from spreading to the forest, but it was not, there will be a huge loss of forest cover in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. (SGNP).

“"We learnt about the fire when we saw plumes of smoke emanating from the slum pocket below. We also heard cylinders exploding. Thankfully, the fire brigade controlled the fire or else it would have reached our tribal hamlet where more than 900 of us live,” said Shailesh Page, a tribal resident from the tribal hamlet inside SGNP. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner of P North ward, said, “There was an electric substation. It is still unclear whether the fire started due to the explosion of cylinders or sparks at the substation or from something else. The fire is under control and we have put up three big tents on open spaces where residents can stay for a couple of days.”

A fire broke out just 500 meters deep in the forest of Jamrishi Nagar, and a 12-year-old boy died last month. 20 Approximate number of cylinder blasts