The Mumbai fire department, in its preliminary investigation report submitted on Friday, said the fire that broke out at a building in Kamala Mills compound is likely to have started at Mojo’s Bistro and not at 1Above lounge as reported earlier. On December 28, blaze in the two resto-pubs had claimed 14 lives.
“It was revealed from most of the eyewitnesses that hookah was served at Mojo’s restaurant at the time of fire,” according to the report submitted to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Ajoy Mehta on Friday, PTI reported. “There is every possibility that during removal of lighted charcoal from the stove or while transferring it into the hookah or during the fanning of the charcoal, the flying burning embers came in contact with the combustible curtains or decorative material nearby and started the fire.”
The blaze then rapidly spread to the thatched roof of 1Above, the report said. Both restaurants had stored large stocks of combustible materials such as illegal sheds made of bamboo, burning charcoal, synthetic curtains and cushions, the Hindustan Times quoted from the report.
On Saturday, the Mumbai Police added the owners of Mojo’s Bistro as accused in the original First Information Report on the fire, ANI reported.
According to the fire department, both Mojo’s Bistro and 1Above did not have permissions to serve liquor and hookah. While the bar tenders at the restaurants had resorted to performing fire stunts, the fire escape route to staircase were blocked with beer kegs, they said.
However, the reason behind the heavy causalities was the interiors of 1Above, which was covered with thatched roof, according to the report. People who took shelter in the toilet of the restaurant died from asphyxia.
On January 2, the owners of 1Above restaurant had written to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other top police officials with “evidence” that, they claimed, showed the fire started in nearby Mojo’s Bistro. The co-owners of the restaurant have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
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