4-year-old girl dangles from third-floor window in Pune for 15 minutes, rescued by off-duty firefighter

Firefighter Yogesh Chavan (Express Photo/ Sushant Kulkarni)

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, Chavan, who has served the Pune fire brigade for the last 14 years and is posted at the Kothrud fire station, said, “I was home as Tuesday is my weekly off. I was getting ready for a bath when I heard the resident of our building, Umesh Sutar, raise the alarm. I went to my balcony and saw a girl hanging precariously from the window grilles of the third-floor apartment. I knew that every second was critical. I was in my underwear. Without wasting time, I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my waist, and rushed to the building.”

According to Chavan, by the time he reached the apartment, the girl’s mother had also arrived and unlocked the door. “We rushed to the bedroom and safely took in the girl through the grills. I got to know that her mother had left the home earlier to drop Bhavika’s elder sister at school,” he said.

“When the mother left the home Bhavika was asleep. It seems that she got up when she was home alone and inadvertently came out of the window grill while playing by the window. As per my guess, she would have been hanging by the window grill for at least 15 minutes, which also shows immense grit on the part of a four-year-old.”