Saki Naka Scrap Godown Fire, Mumbai: Two Unidentified Bodies Found, Four Injured; Cause Under Investigation

What happened

A fire broke out in a scrap godown at Abdul Rashid Compound on Khairani Road, Saki Naka, Andheri (East), Mumbai, on the evening of Tuesday, 20 October 2026, the day of Dussehra. The Mumbai Fire Brigade received the call at 6.18 pm and declared a Level-II fire soon after (Daijiworld and Lokmat Times give 6.37 pm). The fire was put out at 12.30 am on Wednesday, after more than six hours. Two charred bodies were recovered from the burnt area and four people were treated for burns. The cause has not been established.

According to the fire brigade’s information, quoted by PTI, the fire spread across about 4,000 square feet and hit 60 to 70 commercial units and chawls (row tenements) in a ground-floor and partly first-floor structure. Free Press Journal, repeating the brigade’s update, wrote the area as about 4,000 by 4,000 square feet, so the exact extent is not settled. The items burnt included electrical wiring and installations, garment stock, plastic granules, scrap, wooden furniture, empty aerosol containers, LPG cylinders and machinery. Two two-wheelers parked on the roadside and a tempo were also damaged.

A senior fire brigade officer told Hindustan Times that the scale and nature of the fire made it hard to say anything about the cause at this stage, and that the scrap fed the blaze rapidly. Early reports on Marathi television channels spoke of several gas cylinders exploding. The fire brigade’s list mentions LPG cylinders among the burnt items, but we found no official count of any blast.

The people

The two dead have not been identified. PTI and Times of India reported that their bodies were found in the area where aerosol containers were stored, and were sent to Rajawadi Hospital for post-mortem. Nothing we read says who they were, whether they worked in the godown or how they came to be there, so we do not speculate.

Four injured men, aged between 20 and about 47, were taken to the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital by police and private vehicles before the fire brigade arrived. Reports give their burns as 80 per cent (a 20-year-old, critical), 40 per cent (two men, serious, admitted to the trauma ward) and 10 per cent (a 40-year-old, stable, under observation and likely to be discharged), according to doctors quoted by Hindustan Times. One of the four is 47 in Hindustan Times, Daijiworld and Esakal, and 42 in Times of India and Free Press Journal. We have not named the injured.

The numbers also differ in the headlines. Hindustan Times, PTI, Free Press Journal and Esakal say four injured. Times of India’s headline says six injured, but its own text lists two bodies and four injured men, so the six appears to be the combined casualty count.

Response

The Mumbai Fire Brigade, Mumbai Police, Adani electricity staff, a 108 ambulance and BMC ward staff were sent to the spot (Daijiworld, Free Press Journal). Reports differ on the number of fire engines: at least eight (Daijiworld) or more than 12 (Free Press Journal). A senior officer said extinguishing the fire was challenging but it was eventually brought under control. Free Press Journal gave the time of the alert as about 6.40 pm, which looks like the Level-II declaration rather than the first call.

PTI noted that this was the third fire in Mumbai that day. Earlier, nine people, including three children, were hurt in a fire in an electrical duct of a 13-storey building in Kurla, and a separate fire hit a department store in south Mumbai.

Why this matters

A scrap godown is a close-packed pile of things that burn: plastics, cloth, wood, wiring and old machines. Add pressurised aerosol containers and LPG cylinders and the fire can throw hot metal and flame without warning. Firefighters then have to work around the unknown, which is why a fire like this can run for hours. Our guide to warehouse fire safety in India explains how stored stock raises the fire load.

The structure also mixed uses. The fire brigade’s account speaks of 60 to 70 commercial units and chawls under one roof line, so people may have been living or working a few feet from the stock. We could not find any report on whether the godown held a trade licence or a fire NOC, or whether the stored goods were declared. This page makes no claim either way. It is still the first thing worth asking, and our note on what a Fire NOC does and does not prove shows what to check.

Khairani Road has seen serious fires before. Free Press Journal reported in October 2022 that a scrap godown fire on the same road burnt 20 to 25 tin sheds with no casualties, and recalled that a dozen workers were killed in a farsan mart fire there in 2017. Elsewhere, a fire in a godown complex in Kolkata earlier this year killed workers who slept there; see our Kolkata warehouse fire case study. Mumbai’s own compound fire record is covered in the Kamala Mills case study.

In Maharashtra, NCRB recorded 697 deaths in accidental fires in 2024, of which 155 were attributed to electrical short circuits and 160 to cooking gas cylinders or stove bursts. These figures cover all places, not only godowns.

Lessons for godown owners, tenants and neighbours

• Keep pressurised containers apart. Aerosol cans and LPG cylinders should not be stacked among plastics, cloth or scrap. Store them in a separate, ventilated area away from heat and wiring, with the quantity written down.
• Do not mix homes, shops and stock under one roof. If people sleep or work next to a godown, one fire takes all of them. Ask who is allowed to stay on the premises at night.
• Keep the lane open for fire engines. Roadside two-wheelers, handcarts and stacked drums slow a tender that must reach the gate within minutes. Keep a clear width, and a clear way in for hose lines.
• Check licences and the Fire NOC. Ask the owner or landlord for the trade licence and the current Fire NOC before you rent a gala. If a godown has none, say so to the ward office.
• Look at the wiring. Overloaded boards, joints wrapped in tape and cables running through piles of scrap are common in godown clusters. Get them checked by a licensed electrician. We make no claim about the cause here.
• Keep two ways out and an extinguisher you can reach. A small fire can sometimes be tackled early with the right extinguisher, but once it reaches stock or aerosols, everyone leaves and the call goes out at once.

If there is a fire near you

• Leave at once and move well away from the building. Pressurised cans and cylinders can burst, so do not stay to watch.
• Call 112, the fire brigade on 101 or an ambulance on 108 from a safe place, and say what is stored there. In Mumbai, the BMC disaster control helpline is 1916.
• Do not go back for belongings, and do not use a lift if you are in a building above.
• Tell the fire officers if anyone may still be inside and where.
• For a burn: Cool the burn under cool, clean running water for 20 minutes. No ice, toothpaste, oil or butter. Then go to a hospital.

What is still not known

The cause and where the fire began are not established. The two dead have not been identified. We could not find any report of an FIR, a police inquiry finding, compensation, the licence or fire NOC status of the godown, the owner’s name or any BMC action on unauthorised godowns in the area. Reports also differ on the number of fire engines and the exact area burnt. We checked on the morning of 21 October 2026 and will update this page when officials share more.

More on Mumbai: see our Mumbai fire and emergency safety guide for fire brigade numbers, every fire station and the local risks to know.