Mumbai, May 14 (IANS) Mumbai Fire Brigade Deputy Chief S.G. Amin, who suffered over 80 percent burns while battling a building blaze last Saturday, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday evening, an official said.
The end came around 4 p.m., after he fought for life for six days at the National Burns Centre, Navi Mumbai, an official of BMC Disaster Control told IANS.
Amin – who was awarded the President’s Gold Medal for meritorious services during the November, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks – was on May 11 belatedly granted a promotion due since over five months by the BMC last Monday.
He, along with Chief Fire Officer Sunil Nesarikar, was injured while battling the blaze in Gokul Niwas building in the congested Kalbadevi locality last Saturday.
Nesarikar sustained around 50 percent burns and is now reported to be stable at the NBC.
With Amin’s death, the toll in the fire tragedy climbed to three. The bodies of two other firemen – M.M. Desai and S.W. Rane – who went missing last Saturday during the fire-fighting, were found early Sunday from the debris of the building which had collapsed later.
The BMC has committed to look after the families of the deceased firemen by way of speedy compensation and clearance of dues, giving a civic job to one family member, looking after all educational expenses of their children and allotting a house to the surviving family.
Simultaneously, the BMC ordered a probe into the Gokul Niwas tragedy to be completed within three weeks and an audit of all fire-hazard buildings to be completed within a month for initiating remedial measures.
This was second major traumatic incident in the past 10 months for the Mumbai fire brigade, officially existing since April 1887.
Last year, on July 18, a fireman was killed on duty while battling a blaze in Lotus Business Park, a commercial high-rise in Andheri west.