'Thankfully, the burning car was not an EV': Fire brigade on Mumbai Coastal Road tunnel blaze

AFTER receiving hundreds of calls related to tree collapses over the past few days the MumbaiFire Brigadewas alerted bySouth Mumbaibound motorist Sudhir Nair on Wednesday afternoon that a fire had broken out in his carin the Coastal Road tunnelldquoThe control room immediately notified the Worli Gowalia Tank and Nariman Point fire stations and dispatched fire engines to the spotrdquo said SD Sawant deputy chief fire officerThe Worli and Gowalia Tank personnel couldnrsquot reach the spot before their Nariman Point counterparts as they got stuck in a traffic snarl caused by panicked motorists who abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the tunnelNarendra Bachhav station incharge of Nariman Point fire station the first fire officer to reach the burning vehicle said the fire engine could not enter the tunnel from the Chowpatty end as traffic had come to a complete standstill ldquoWe therefore decided to approach the spot from the Nariman Point side even though it meant moving against the flow of traffic Every minute mattered because a vehicle fire inside a tunnel can quickly create panic due to the accumulation of smokerdquo said BachhavChallenges in tunnelAfter entering the tunnel Bachhavrsquos team faced poor visibility due to dense smoke ldquoAt one point we had to get down from the fire engine with torches in our hands and proceed guiding the driver for a short distance so the vehicle could move safely through the smoke Getting inside the tunnel itself turned out to be the toughest part of the operationrdquo Bachhav saidThe vehicleThe situation was relatively under control when the officers and engines reached the burning vehicle ldquoThe fire had remained confined to the car which fortunately was not an EV electric vehicle That madefirefightingcomparatively straightforward as we did not have to deal with the risks associated with EV battery fires We quickly brought the blaze under control and ensured there were no flareups before declaring the area saferdquo he saidThe responseA total of three fire engines one jumbo tanker a breathing apparatus BA van and one quick response vehicle QRV were deployedldquoThe department has provided all the necessary firefighting systems throughout the tunnel as prescribed by the National Fire Protection Association Now the tunnelrsquos engineers must clarify why these systems did not get activatedrdquo said SawantCar ownerrsquos reactionSudhir Nair said ldquoThe person driving his car in the lane next to us said that there was smoke coming out from the back of our vehicle So our driver immediately stopped the car on the side and we all alighted We are just lucky to be alive We are not in a state to say anything morerdquolsquoDonrsquot ditch vehiclesrsquoAccording to Chief Fire Officer Ravindra Ambulgekar the biggest mistake on the part of commuters was abandoning their vehicles inside the tunnel and running out This caused a traffic jam Since the drivers were not reachable their vehicles couldnrsquot be moved obstructing fire engines ldquoExtreme lack of civic and common sense led to a delay in reaching the spotrdquo he saidDOs and DONrsquoTs Never panic help will reach you for sure Ensure you make space forfirefightingvehicles to reach the spot People could have started reversing their cars instead of abandoning them This would have freed the road for our vehicles Try to provide first aid while keeping yourself safe tillfirefightersarriveA chain reaction inside the Coastal Road tunnel shows how panic during a vehicle fire obstructed emergency responseIllustrationsUday MohiteA car travelling inside the Coastal Road tunnel suddenly catches fireOther motorists snatch their car keys and start running away from the burning car abandoning their own carsThe fire brigade has a tough time navigating the abandoned vehicles inside the tunnel to get to the burning carThe fire is finally extinguished and the car towed away after some timeAccording to Chief Fire Officer Ravindra Ambulgekar