Bhiwandi: As many as 20 students of a coaching centre were rescued by firefighters after a massive fire broke out on the second floor of Gurudev Plaza in Bhiwandi’s Mandi area on Tuesday.
Around 70 school and college students were attending coaching classes on the second and third floors of the commercial building when the fire erupted around 4.40pm.
Of the 70 children, 50 managed to rush out of the building, leaving their bags and books behind, while 20 of them ran up to the third floor and got trapped as the flames reached the staircase. Fire officer P Kapali said: “Since the fire spread across the entire second floor, we first controlled it to prevent it from reaching the third floor. Later, the children were safely evacuated from there.”
Officials suspect that the blaze may have been triggered by a short-circuit.
After the fire was doused, the children ran upstairs and found the classrooms gutted and their books burnt. Some of the students, who are to appear for SSC exams, even lost their hall tickets in the blaze. — Pradeep Gupta