An octogenarian woman was today charred to death and a person was injured when fire broke out in a multi-storey building in suburban Andheri here.
The fire broke out in the sixth floor of the 12-storey building at Link Road in the wee hours around 1 AM, an official of Disaster Control Room said.
Immediately, two fire tenders were pressed into service which brought the blaze under control in half an hour, it said.
The victim, identified as Mahinder Kaur (80), was killed in the fire while the injured has been admitted to a local hospital.
The cause of fire was yet to be known, the official added.
The air quality in residential areas around the dumping
ground remained poor.
According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the air quality index at its Chembur station (near Deonar) was 319 yesterday morning, which improved marginally to 318 by evening, falling under 'very poor' category.
Rais Shaikh, a corporator who represents Deonar in the BMC, said, "We demand Disaster Management Act to be invoked and additional steps be taken to improve the situation."
Blaming the ruling Shiv Sena and BJP for their "failure" to find an efficient way of disposing the city's garbage, a delegation of Congress yesterday demanded immediate closure of Deonar dumping ground.
The fire at Deonar is the third such incident at the largest dumping facility in the city since January. The blaze has led to emission of toxic gases, and raised serious health concerns in areas in the eastern suburb of the metropolis.
