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Journalism of Courage
A day after a billboard collapsed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar following heavy rains and gusty winds, the death toll in the tragedy soared to 14 by Tuesday morning. While officials claimed they did not expect more people to be under the rubble, removing the debris was still underway at the time of going to press. Officials said the slow pace of work was largely due to the concern of working in such close proximity to the petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) storage tanks in the fuel pump where the billboard fell.
On Monday evening, after strong winds and the season’s first spell of rainfall lashed the city, an unauthorised hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump, killing eight on Monday, and injuring 74. As the rescue operation continued into the night, the death toll rose to 14 while the number of injured persons increased to 75.
According to workers present at the accident site, the operation had slowed down as gasoline-powered cutters could not be used over fears of a fire starting due to the fuel from the petrol pump buried under the debris.
Officials said that the petrol pump records showed it had over 50,000 litres of fuel in its storage tanks, making the use of gas cutters to remove the metall billboard unfeasible.
To mitigate the risk, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) employed hydraulic cutters instead of gas ones. This is because hydraulic cutters do not produce sparks. Water and chemicals were also sprayed during the cutting process to further reduce the risk of fire, given the presence of flammable material under the fallen billboard.
“Following the collapse, the petrol pump was affected. This station had a CNG station as well as diesel and fuel tanks underground. Therefore, the use of gas cutters was out of the question as even a small spark would possibly ignite a big fire, owing to the presence of the fuels,” said Fayyaz Shaikh, a private contractor, who was aiding in the rescue operations.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade pressed 12 fire engines into service to spray water on the site, to further reduce any chances of sparks.
Initially, the agencies deployed two cranes weighing 500 tonnes each to pull out the hoarding. However, several workers claimed the crane faced problems in lifting the heavy scrap. “We were trying to lift the debris using the crane. However, the scrap is so heavy that even with the 500 tonne crane, we are facing a lot of difficulty in lifting the metal because it is very heavy,” said a Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) personnel, while on a break from rescue operations.
For perspective, according to reports, the billboard which collapsed weighed 250-tonne.
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