Two dead, four injured as Saki Naka warehouse fire reaches homes

Two people are dead and four men are being treated for burns after a scrap-warehouse fire spread into neighbouring workplaces and homes in Mumbai’s Saki Naka area. One of the injured, 20-year-old Taufiq Qureshi, sustained burns covering 80 percent of his body. The two people killed had not been identified in Wednesday’s reports. ¹

The blaze struck Abdul Rashid Compound on Khairani Road in Andheri East on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. By Wednesday, reports citing civic officials confirmed that two badly burned bodies had been recovered. Those deaths are separate from the four reported injuries: this is not an account of two hospital patients subsequently dying. ^{13 14}

The fire reached an estimated 60–70 commercial units and chawls, the closely packed residential buildings where people live. That combined figure captures the breadth of the fire’s reach, but not the number of people who lost shelter or their means of earning a living. Neither has been established. ¹

Officials identified the injured as Taufiq Qureshi, 20; Jahid Qureshi, also 20; Kamal Shah, 47; and Lalchand Gautam, 40. Alongside Taufiq’s reported 80 percent burns, Jahid and Kamal each sustained 40 percent burns, while Lalchand sustained 10 percent burns. All four were undergoing treatment at Rajawadi Hospital, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials cited by The Indian Express. ¹

A count of four injured cannot, on its own, convey the severity of those injuries. The reported burn percentages make that harm clearer, especially for Taufiq. They do not establish a prognosis, and no later update on the men’s condition has been reported in the available accounts. ¹

Residents rescued victims before the fire brigade arrived and took them to hospitals in private vehicles, an official told The Indian Express. The bodies of the two people killed were taken for postmortem examination. Their identities remain one of the most immediate unanswered questions. ¹

The early reports were incomplete, not a final accounting of the people harmed. Mid-day’s initial Tuesday account recorded no injuries in a 6:40 p.m. update. Later Tuesday reporting recorded four people with burns; Wednesday’s reports added the two bodies recovered from the compound. ^{21 4 14}

The exact ignition time is less certain than the brigade’s call record. UNI reported the call at 6:18 p.m.; The Indian Express, citing officials, described the outbreak as around 6:30 p.m. That approximate onset cannot be reconciled into a single precise start time with the earlier call. ^{13 1}

Nor do Wednesday’s publication times establish when the bodies were found. News18’s PTI report carried the deaths at 9:30 a.m. IST on October 21, but the precise recovery time and the time officials first confirmed the fatalities have not been established. ¹⁴

The civic disaster cell described the affected premises as a ground-floor structure with, in part, one upper floor. Commercial units and residential chawls were within the fire’s reach. The consequences therefore extend beyond damage to stored goods: the same fire spread through places used both for work and for living. ¹

The estimate of 60–70 affected commercial units and chawls is one combined range—not 60–70 businesses plus another 60–70 residential premises. It is also not a verified count of separate buildings or displaced households. A reliable tally of displacement and losses remains missing. ^{1 3}

The Indian Express described the scrap warehouse itself as covering 16,000 square feet. That is a reported warehouse-size figure, not a measurement of the entire area damaged as flames spread through adjoining premises. A definitive total for the burned area has not been established. ¹

The affected premises contained garment stocks, plastic granules, scrap material and wooden furniture, along with electrical installations, empty aerosol containers, LPG cylinders and machinery. Mid-day reported that the bodies were recovered from the area where aerosol containers were stored. ^{1 3}

That recovery location does not identify what started the fire. Neither the aerosol containers nor the presence of LPG cylinders establishes an ignition source or an explosion. Authorities were still investigating the cause. ^{1 3}

With the blaze extinguished, the urgent questions concern people as much as property: identifying the two who died, establishing how the four injured men are progressing, and determining how many residents and businesses have been displaced. The confirmed toll is already severe; the full extent of the loss is not yet known.