Firemen were not aware about presence of people inside factory
| Date :09-Dec-2019 |
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visits the survivors of a fire incident at a factory in Anaj Mandi, at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)
By Saloni Bhatia :
NEW DELHI,
WHEN the first firefighters arrived at the site of the deadly blaze in north Delhi, they had no idea so many people were trapped in the four-storey building. The firefighters made their way through dense smoke and flames on the first floor when they overhead a distress call coming from the second, so they rushed to rescue the person, and realised many more were trapped and screaming for help. The incident turned out to be the biggest fire tragedy in the national capital since the Uphaar Cinema blaze in 1997, when 59 people died. Rajesh Shukla, the additional divisional officer of the Delhi Fire Service, said he had received only a single line of information about a blaze in a factory in Anaj Mandi area. Once at the site, he said the firefighters tried to douse the fire on the first floor when “we heard someone making a phone call about the blaze on the second floor, and directed the water hose towards it.”
“I thought there was only one man and I would rescue him but when I reached there, the room was filled with people crying for help,” he told PTI. “I brought down 10-12 people who were conscious from that room but later we learnt that there was another room where there were more people, numbering more than 30. We learnt (about it) quite late,” Shukla said. He said it was a difficult operation since the entire building was filled with smoke. “I went for the second time with a breathing apparatus and by that time, the category of the fire had been upgraded and there were more teams that were sent,” he added.
Shukla said then his breathing apparatus exhausted and he stayed downstairs. He later went back into the building and got to know that there were nine more persons trapped. “It was a difficult operation and we had to carry a lot of people on our shoulders. I entered the building more than 12 times during the operation,” he said.
Families recall last words of loved ones killed in blaze
NEW DELHI :
GRIEVING family members of those killed in the Anaj Mandi blaze on Sunday struggled to remain composed as they recalled the last words of their loved ones. In his final moments, 35-year-old Imran asked his father Mohammad Nafees in a phone call to save him, saying that he won’t be able to come out alive. Nafees (58), who lost two sons in the tragedy, said the brothers had come to Delhi from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh six years ago. They operated a carry bag-manufacturing unit on the second floor in which around 25 people were employed. “I got a call from Imran, my elder son, who said ‘Abbu, a massive fire has erupted in the building. I won’t be able to come out alive. Please save me’,” Nafees said with a lump in his throat.
“I asked him to call the fire brigade and the call ended soon after. He didn’t pick up my calls again,” he said.
According to Nafees, what would pain him the most was that he did not get to speak to his younger son, 32-year-old Ikram. Eighteer-year-old Mustaqeen from Saharsa, Bihar, lost his elder brother Afsad (24) who worked on the third floor in a jacket-manufacturing unit. “Afsad couldn’t celebrate this year’s Eid with his family. He was to go home on Monday morning and had asked me to buy household items in his last call on Saturday night,” said Mustaqueen, who came to Delhi a few months ago to learn tailoring and lives in Sadar Bazar.