Mumbai (The Hindu): One-plus-one-storey structure in Mankhurd comes crashing down after a loud explosion on the ground floor

Three members of a family died, leaving two minors orphaned, after a house adjacent to theirs came crashing down on their house early on Thursday morning. The incident left 11 others injured.

According to the Trombay police the incident occurred at around 6 a.m. in the Maharashtra Nagar area in Mankhurd. The police said a one-plus-one-storey structure in the locality collapsed after a loud explosion on the ground floor. Both the floors were rented out to two different families: the Gadhve family stayed on the ground floor, and the Pawar family occupied the first floor.

Gas leak suspected

Senior Police Inspector Annasaheb Sonur, Trombay police station, said, “Residents of the area told us that they detected a strong smell of Liquified Petroleum Gas from the structure. The gas cylinder in the Gadhve residence seems to have leaked a large amount of gas through the night. When a member of the family lit the stove in the morning, it caused an explosion, causing the structure to collapse.”

The roof of the structure collapsed to the right, falling on seven-year-old Swastik Jadhav, who was sitting outside his house at the time. The rest of the building collapsed to its left, causing the adjacent house, where the Wankhede family stayed, to collapse on itself.

Residents of the area immediately called the Fire Brigade and the police, and started rescuing the people who were trapped underneath the debris. While eight victims were rescued by the residents, five others were rescued by the fire brigade. All the victims were rushed to Sion Hospital, where three were declared dead before admission.

The deceased have been identified as Sanjay Wankhede (40), his wife Rekha (30) and his mother Kasturba (60). They are survived by Sanjay and Rekha’s children Vaishakha (13) and Pratik (11).

Apart from Swastik, the rest of the injured have been identified as Umesh Gadhve (40), his wife Shobha (35), their sons Omkar (12) and Soham (5), their niece Sanika (10), Swati Pawar (30), her daughter Kadambari (10) and son Rudra (6).

Swati's husband, Hanumant, was out of station when the incident occurred, said officials. Vaishakha is in Shatabdi Hospital, while the rest of the victims are in the Sion Hospital.

“The public toilet in the locality is undergoing renovation, and Swastik’s mother had gone to use a public toilet some distance away. He was sitting outside his house waiting for her to return when the structure collapsed,” an officer said.

Mr. Sonur added, “We have registered Accidental Death Reports and are conducting further inquiries into the matter.”