Mumbai hoarding collapse: After 63 hrs, rescue operations called off; clearing debris still on

For the rescuers, the recovery of the car where the Chansorias were trapped proved to be the most challenging aspect of the 60-hour-plus rescue operation since the car had been crushed under one of the five huge girders of the hoarding. The 120-feet billboard rested atop five metal girders.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior MFB official said, “The car in which the Chansorias had been located was situated in the middle of the accident site. The car was badly crushed, almost flattened, under the pressure of one of the hoarding’s five girders. The metal girder is huge and heavy, and we were facing immense difficulties in cutting through the structure. We used gas cutters to cut the girder and pressed three fire hose lines to ensure the supply of water to prevent a spark, and thereby a fire.”

When the girder was finally cut, the rescuing agencies pulled the car from beneath using a JCB. “The car was in an extremely bad state. First, we cut the doors of the car and later cut open the roof through which we extracted the bodies of the victims,” the officer added.

The MFB officer told Express that the bodies were “almost decomposed” when they were retrieved. To counter the stench arising from the decomposed bodies, the rescuers used masks and deployed phenyl to aid the operation.

Hours after the bodies were recovered, Bhushan Gagrani, Mumbai’s municipal commissioner and state-appointed administrator, visited the site of the accident and called off the rescue operation.

REASONS BEHIND THE TIME TAKEN TO REACH TRAPPED BODIES:

The proximity of the presence of the petrol, diesel, and Compressed Natural Gas storage tanks at the petrol pump, which was crushed under the hoarding, had emerged as the biggest Achilles’ heel of the entire rescue operation. Toiling for over 60 hours, senior officials as well as laborers from various agencies who had been roped in to aid with the rescue echoed that the proximity of the fuels to the debris meant that gas cutters could not be deployed, for even a small spark from the cylinders could potentially trigger another catastrophe such as a fire.

This inability to use the gas cutters reduced the pace of the search operations to a large extent.

“Firstly, the collapsed hoarding itself was very heavy. To cut through it, we used gas cutters. However, these cutters work on the principle of friction, which generates sparks. Since the site of the accident was a petrol pump, even a small spark could have triggered a fire. Therefore, we couldn’t use gas cutters, which slowed the operation.”

The agency’s biggest fears came to life in one such incident during the course of the 60-hour rescue operation when a small fire broke out at the Ghatkopar worksite.

“However, the fire was contained very quickly, and we carried out cooling operations soon after. We have been working round the clock, in three shifts, to ensure that such incidents were prevented,” an MFB worker told Express, adding that water from three hose lines was being pressed continuously.

Amidst the inability to use the gas cutters, the NDRF deployed hydraulic cutters to cut through smaller pieces of metal while for the big metal pieces, two cranes weighing 500 tonnes were pressed onto the site.

However, even the crane failed to lift the heavy metal pieces in the debris.

Fayyaz Shaikh, a private contractor who supplies heavy machinery, said, “Even though the crane is 500 tonnes, it can only lift weights up to 50 tonnes. Meanwhile, the billboard itself is so heavy that if we were to clear the debris using the cranes, we would have needed at least 5 of them.” For perspective, according to reports, the billboard that collapsed weighed 250 tonnes.

In the failure of the cranes, the agencies, on Tuesday, switched gears on the strategy and deployed jaw crushers, which dismantled the metal scrap into smaller pieces. These pieces were then manually carried away from the work site, where the metal scrap was reduced to even smaller sizes.

In a bid to aid the rescue operations, the NDRF deployed two teams of 55 personnel, while the MFB pressed 12 fire engines and its workforce onto the site. Meanwhile, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has also dedicated a team of 60 personnel from Metro Line 4 Amar Mahal site to provide support.

Alongside rescuing the last victims, on Thursday, the MFB managed to extract the final vehicles crushed under the hoarding’s weight — a bitumen truck and a tempo. Data procured from the BMC showed that a total of 71 vehicles were found at the site.

Kuldeep, a worker who aided with the extraction of nearly 11 – 12 vehicles, said, “We were using hydra crane trucks for lifting the crushed vehicles and clearing the site. Clearing a single vehicle took anywhere between 40 minutes to one hour.”

Even as the rescue operation was called off on Thursday morning, a mammoth task lies ahead — clearing the metal debris away from the site.

With the vehicles cleared, the BMC and other agencies have commenced the use of gas cutters to cut the debris and clear the site. Sufiyan Khan, a laborer who has been working since Monday, said, “We have all been working in eight shifts to rescue people and now clear the debris. Since the vehicles have been moved, we are using gas cutters while the fire brigade is pressing in water for cooling.”

“While the search operation is being called off, the work of removing the rubble is undergoing. This work is expected to continue throughout the way as there’s still a substantial proportion of debris left at the spot,” BMC Chief Gagrani told reporters on Thursday.