Mumbai fire: Almost all died from suffocation, proper evacuation plan could have avoided deaths, say doctors

Dr Harish Pathak, head of the forensic department at KEM Hospital, said Friday that almost all of the deaths in the Mumbai fire were caused by asphyxiation. 

He added that a proper evacuation plan could have avoided the deaths. 

Fourteen people died in the fire that broke out at about 12.30 am Friday morning at the 1 Above pub on the third floor of the Trade House building in the Kamala Mills complex in Lower Parel, Mumbai. 

Eleven of the dead were women. 

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News reports said 21 people were injured, of whom three are believed to be in critical condition. 

Dr Rajesh Dere, who conducted the postmortems on the 14 people who died, added that all the deaths were "due to suffocation". 

The fire is thought to have been caused by a short circuit in the Above 1 restaurant where a birthday celebration was in progress. 

Eyewitness Dr Sulbha KG Arora, a Mumbai-based gynaecologist, said the whole place was engulfed in flames soon after the fire started. 

She added that there was a stampede since no one knew where the fire-escape doors were. 

An FIR has been has filed against the 1 Above restaurant and three people associated with the restaurant have been booked on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.