Jumped from third floor… climbed down AC duct pipe: Mukherjee Nagar coaching centre students recall harrowing incident

#LIVE | A fire broke out at a coaching centre in Mukherjee Nagar, and 11 fire tenders were rushed to spot.

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“At first, we didn’t worry. We thought the AC was overheating and shut it off. Then an employee rushed into the room and shut the door behind him. We saw that the corridor had been engulfed in smoke,” recalled Suresh Meena (22), a recent graduate from IIT-Jodhpur who was preparing for the civil services exam at the centre.

Soon, more smoke began pouring out of the ducts and, within seconds, the room, too, was engulfed. Outside, other classrooms, corridors and the lone stairway were covered in smoke.

Terror-stricken, the students tried rushing outside the room but the door wouldn’t open. They then began breaking windows open to escape; some jumped out of them in panic.

Meena stuck his head out of one to gulp in as much fresh air as he could before heading for the terrace of the building. He managed to get out of the classroom after the door was opened. “I couldn’t see anything in front of me on the staircase,” he said.

Once he reached the roof, he saw people throwing cables and ropes down the building to help students climb down. “I was escorted to the roof of the next building, from where I made my way out,” Meena recalled.

He was among 61 students who sustained injuries in the incident.

Neha (19), from Gwalior, received burn injuries on her right arm as she climbed down the AC duct pipe. “It all happened so fast. We couldn’t even process what was happening. It was like a stampede,” she said.

The teenager is preparing for the civil services exam and came to Delhi only six months ago. “I never thought I’d face such a harrowing incident. There is a common staircase for all floors and it is very narrow, making it difficult for us to climb down and exit through the only door in front… I climbed down through the AC duct pipe, which was very hot. I burnt my arm… I just wanted to save myself,” she said.

Ginni Rathi (21), who has been pursuing IAS coaching from a centre in the building, said, “I was on the top floor when suddenly a few students came and told us a fire had broken out… I rushed toward the window to try to climb down using a rope but it slipped out of my hands and fell on the AC compressor…”

Ankit Meena (19), another student of the coaching centre recollected how he managed to escape the fire: “I crawled out a window and rappelled down the wall using a metal pipe that was on the side of the building. The pipe was hot because of the fire, but it saved my life.”

“No one told us what to do — to go up the terrace or out the window,” added Ankit, as he nursed the injuries on his hands. “It was to each their own.”