A woman and her two ten-year-old children owe their lives to their neighbours who swung into action seconds after a blaze erupted in her flat on the third floor of Meghwadi building no. 3 in Lalbaug on Tuesday. A neighbour, Akshata Divsalkar, suspecting there was an LPG leak in the room where the fire broke out, asked her son to wake up the flat’s occupants around 4.45 am.

As the 27-year-old, Aniket Divsalkar, knocked on the door of the flat, Kunda Rane, 48, was sleeping with her children Atharva and Vaishnavi, a loud sound woke up the entire chawl. Kunda then opened the door. She was surrounded by flames and the blaze was spreading rapidly inside the room. Neighbours ran with blankets and managed to pull out the children.