Day after: Picking up the pieces as rescue op ends

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Some people say the sheets of paper are books of accounts from the garment shops in the building. Others wonder if they are pages from a school notebook. Even as the truck goes on to the main road and drives away, another truck backs into the lane, ready to take away the next installment of debris from the four-storey building that caved in after being gutted by a massive blaze on Saturday night.

The Gokul Nivas building, which residents say was nearly 100 years old, was one of the many buildings crammed tightly in the narrow lanes of Kalbadevi.

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The Old Hanuman Lane, where the building was located literally within a foot of two other buildings, is an already narrow one, lined with shops and entrances to buildings on either side. Residents say that whatever little space left, is taken up by double and even triple parked vehicles and unauthorised stalls.

“The fire brigade did the best that it could, but what could firemen do if entering the lane itself was difficult? There is a fruit stall at one side of the mouth of the lane, and a snacks stall at the other, taking up space. Even the main road is lined with vehicles parked next to each other, and they could not be cleared fast enough for the fire brigade’s vehicles to enter,” said Sujit Dubey, a resident of the area.

The debris of the building, which is located right in the middle of the lane, has divided the lane in two parts.

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Civic officials were seen directing trucks and demolition vehicles to clear the debris as fast as possible.

“Our work here is basically done. We are only waiting on standby in case they find a body or someone still stuck in the debris while clearing it,” says a fireman who has been at the spot since Saturday evening.

A hotel next to the collapsed building provided free food to the firemen, civic officials and policemen at the spot, and bottles of water were being passed around every once in a while as the work continued with the blistering sun overhead.

“We are almost sure that no one is trapped in the debris but we do not want to take any chances,” said Senior Police Inspector Sanjivrao Mandlik, L T Marg police station, in whose jurisdiction the area falls.
gautam.mengle@expressindia.com