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In the middle of the desperate search to locate two firefighters trapped below a burning building in Kalbadevi on Saturday, the unexpected discovery of a coat worn by one of the officers led to a brief hope of them being alive, until their charred and battered bodies were recovered by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team.
Read: Mumbai building fire: Panel formed to probe cause of fire, deaths
“While clearing the debris at 11.10 pm, we found a black fireman’s coat. This give us and the fire brigade hope that the two men might be alive,” said Assistant Commandant Vairava Nathan of the NDRF’s 5th Battalion.
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Half an hour later, however, the NDRF retrieved the body of Assistant Divisional Fire Officer S W Rane at 11.45 pm, and that of station officer M N Desai 12.05 am on Sunday. “The falling of hot debris and suffocation due to smoke both contributed to their deaths,” Nathan said.
A 40-member team of the NDRF had reached Gokul Nivas in Kalbadevi at 9.15 pm on Saturday after the BMC’s warning of the possibility of the structure collapsing.
Read: Day after: Picking up the pieces as rescue op ends
By the time the NDRF navigated narrow lanes to reach the site of the disaster, chief fire officer Sunil Nesarikar and deputy chief fire officer Sudhir Amin had been pulled out of the wreckage, while Rane and Desai remained missing.
But while the fire raged on, the NDRF could not enter the collapsed building. “Luckily, the portion of the building from where Rane and Desai had entered had been marked and the fire brigade was working to clear a passage into it. Even then, we had to wait at least an hour until the fire in that part was brought under control. As more debris was dug up, it caught fresh air and became ablaze,” said Nathan, who returned to Mumbai on Friday after participating in search and rescue operations in earthquake-hit Nepal.
Read: Mumbai Fire Brigade: Colleagues bid adieu to Sanjay Desai and Mahendra Rane
All this while, he added, the building was becoming unstable and fears mounted of the entire structure coming down.
“Even as JCB machines worked to clear a path to reach the trapped officers, part of the right wall was falling. And then, between 9.30 pm and 9.40 pm, the whole third and fourth floors collapsed,” he said.
The fire was doused completely at 12.30 am, while the NDRF formally called off its operations at 1.45 am, after the fire brigade had made a headcount of its personnel.
According to NDRF’ 5th Battalion Commandant Alok Avasthy, the fire continued unabated for eight hours because the building was constructed largely of wood and also because a lot of bamboo had been used to repair it.
srinath.rao@expressindia.com
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