The quick action of locals helped save the lives of at least six people who were sleeping in a hardware shop near Sakinaka Metro station that caught fire early on Monday. The blaze, however, claimed the lives of two workers, Rakesh Gupta, 22, and Ganesh Devashi, 23. 

Residents of Alex Pereira chawl, which is located behind the shop, immediately sprung into action and broke the asbestos roof of the store, enabling workers to come out. Bablu Sayyad, a local who helped rescue the workers, said, “We were asleep when someone started banging on our door loudly between 1.30 am and 2 am. When we came out, we saw smoke emerging from Rajshree electric and hardware shop. We immediately removed LPG cylinders from our homes and climbed to the top of the shop and broke through the roof. The workers then made their way out via the opening.