An eyewitness on Friday said loss of lives in the Kamala Mills fire could have been averted.

A huge fire broke out at Kamla Mills compound in Lower Parel locality of Mumbai in the early hours of Friday in which 14 people were killed.

Sharad Jadhav, who works with TV9 Marathi channel that has office in Kamla Mills Compound, was one of the persons who witnessed the havoc created by fire.

"After talking to the injured, we came to know that first fire broke out at Mojo Cafe, which wasn't a major one. Had it been controlled within time then there wouldn't have been loss of life and property. Since it wasn't controlled, fire engulfed the nearby hotel. Today, 14 youngsters have lost life, who were country's future," Jadhav told ANI.


He questioned whether the cafe and the hotel had proper fire fighting equipment or not. "The authorities should ascertain if cafe and hotel had fire fighting equipment then why didn't they extinguish fire? If they didn't have requisite fire extinguishers then also they must be punished," Jadhav said.


He recounted how at 12:30 am on Friday they came to know about a fire in the compound. "I was in night shift. We received information about a fire at 12:30 am, but the fire had broken out between 12:10 and 12:15 am. When me and my friend went to the spot we saw that the fire was massive. We ran back to our office and evacuated everyone. By the time we reached safety, the roof of our office building collapsed," Jadhav said. As per reports, the building is located near various media houses, like Mirror Now, ET Now and Times Now.