Mumbai Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

Mumbai has more tall buildings than any Indian city, and the fire brigade itself says towers above 60 m are a bigger challenge for its crews. In the Kamala Mills fire at Lower Parel on 29 December 2017, at least 14 people died in rooftop pubs, as we cover in our Kamala Mills case study.

On 26 July 2005, Mumbai got 944.2 mm of rain in 24 hours, and large parts of the city went under water with vehicles stranded on main roads. Low-lying roads, subways and railway tracks still flood quickly in very heavy rain.

Old, damaged or illegally built houses can give way after a day of heavy rain. On 9 June 2021, part of an illegal three-storey house in Malwani, Malad, fell on a neighbouring home at night, killing at least 12 people, eight of them children.

Strong pre-monsoon winds can bring down big hoardings, trees and loose structures. On 13 May 2024, a 120 x 120 ft hoarding fell on a petrol pump at Ghatkopar during a storm, killing at least 16 people and injuring about 75.

The Fire Brigade lists the refineries, nuclear plant, airport and seaport in the heart of the city as very serious fire hazards. In the 1944 Bombay Docks explosion, 66 firemen died, and our case studies on that blast and the Mumbai Port crane fire look at what went wrong.

Crowded roads mean buses, cars and two-wheelers share space with lakhs of pedestrians every day. On 9 December 2024, a BEST electric bus ploughed into people near Kurla West market and eight died; our Coastal Road and Khar West case studies cover more recent crashes.