Mumbai: Major fire outbreak in masala market's dry fruit shop; 15-16 hour battle to extinguish

A significant fire broke out at H23 dry fruit shop in the Masala Market premises of the Mumbai Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) at around 3:15 am on Monday. The upper part of this lane housed a large stock of dry fruits, including cashews, almonds, walnuts, and pistachios. Consequently, the fire brigade had to work for 14-16 hours to douse the fire.

The APMC Masala Market houses numerous hot spice shops, including those selling walnuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, dates, and more. On Monday, a significant fire broke out at H23, a dry fruit stall in Masala Bazaar, around 3:15 am. The Vashi fire brigade promptly responded to the incident. However, the presence of a substantial quantity of walnuts, nuts, almonds, and plastic packaging materials worsened the fire's intensity. Fortunately, there were no casualties, as per the reports.

The fire brigade faced a challenging task in extinguishing the fire. It took them 15-16 hours to douse the flames, and they had to deploy 30-35 water tankers. Even after the fire was extinguished, some embers continued to smolder until Monday evening, mainly due to the substantial quantity of walnuts and almonds present at the scene. The cause of the fire is believed to be a short circuit.