Fire breaks out in BMC school in Parel; no casualties

Fire breaks out in Mumbai's Saibaba school, which has been closed for three years. No injuries reported. Cause of fire under investigation.

Mumbai: A fire broke out in the five-storey BMC-run Saibaba school located opposite Mint Colony monorail station in Parel on Monday morning. Nobody was injured in the incident as the school was closed due to the Makar Sankranti holiday. The blaze erupted at around 9.15 am.

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Nine oxygen cylinders and mattresses used during Covid were kept stored on the ground floor of the school. Seven of them burst, said fire officer on duty, Rajendra Dhande.

The fire was restricted to the electric wiring, electric installation, mattresses, etc on the ground floor. It was extinguished by 12:05 at noon. The cause of the fire, however, was still under investigation.

Vinay Bhojne, a local politician from the Shiv Sena, alleged that the school had been shut around three years ago after a structural audit conducted by the BMC found it was in a dilapidated condition. A father of a student in the school, Deepak Kadam, said the 1,000-odd students were distributed among three schools in the area. “It was then used as a centre to administer covid vaccines,” he said.

After Covid, the school has been lying idle, depriving the students of the space, both claimed. They allege there is a conspiracy to develop the land as a mall, while it is in the interest of the students that the school continue.