Trained security personnel saved two lives in Breach Candy fire
Society’s overcrowded compound and dysfunctional firefighting system delayed fire brigade operation. The fire brigade will now investigate the cause of the fire, and, meanwhile, is in the process of issuing a notice to the building for a non-functioning firefighting system
MUMBAI: A major tragedy was averted when the well-trained security personnel of Breach Candy Apartments, in the nick of time, rescued two trapped residents on the 12th floor when the building fell prey to a massive fire on Saturday night. This was before the fire brigade could begin its operations, which were delayed on account of the building’s dysfunctional firefighting system and parked cars which had blocked the approach road to the society.
Lal Bahadur and Laxmiram Pandey, the two security guards who were involved in the rescue operation, were having dinner when the fire broke out. Well-versed with the regular fire safety drills conducted in their society, they left their meal halfway to rush into the building. “We sprinted upstairs at around 10 pm,” said Pandey. “When we tried to enter the flat on the 12th floor, where the fire began, it was suffused in smoke.” The 12th-floor flat belongs to Raghu Iyer, who lives there with his mother and sister.
“Iyer Saab had gone out at 4.30 pm,” said Pandey. “We rescued his mother and sister and brought them down. A wheelchair was brought from the nearby Breach Candy Hospital for the senior citizen. The 13th-floor flat, belonging to Dilip S, was less affected.”
Sanjay Manjrekar, chief fire officer, told HT that the fire brigade had yet to ascertain the cause of the fire. “We learnt from the neighbours that the elderly lady in the house had Parkinson’s Disease,” he said. “It was a small fire and it could have been doused, but by the time the security personnel entered, the blaze had spread.” The Iyers could not be contacted.
Breach Candy CHS, a gated society, houses two other buildings called Breach Candy House and Breach Candy Gardens. The B wing of Breach Candy Apartments is still occupied but the A wing was vacated after the fire brigade cut the electricity and water supply in the wake of the blaze. Most residents have reportedly checked into hotels or moved to their relatives’ homes.
“Flat 1201 was totally gutted,” said Santosh Sawant, deputy CFO, adding that the fire emanated from the bedroom of the Iyers’ flat but travelled up to the kitchen, where a cylinder blasted on account of the heat. “Another cylinder started leaking. The compressor of the refrigerator then burst and the air-conditioner melted,” said Sawant, recounting the litany of horrors. The impact of the cylinder was so massive that residents of the neighbouring building thought it was an earthquake.
Two other residents were stuck due to the billowing smoke and unable to escape the blaze, but were rescued by the fire brigade. “When the cylinder burst, the sphincter hit the roof of a neighbouring fifth-floor building, and it was about to catch fire. We used aerial and advanced Turntable Ladders (TTL) to reach the spot and extinguish the spark there,” said Sawant.
The fire officer said it was a challenge to prevent the blaze from spreading to the neighbouring flat and the eleventh and thirteenth floors. “The main challenge before us was that the approach passageway was too narrow for our hydraulic ladders and our fire engines to take a turn and enter,” he said. “The common open space on either side of the building was full of parked cars. The operation was delayed because they had to first drive their cars out.”
A resident from a neighbouring building called Skyscraper told HT that their trained security men too were very vigilant. “They were the first ones to call the fire station when they spotted the fire,” he said, adding that despite the delay, the fire brigade did whatever interim work they could till all the cars were driven out. “One of the things I saw them doing was smashing all the glass windows from the stairway on every floor so that the smoke didn’t linger and the residents could escape,” he said.
The fire was finally doused at 3.35 am. Cooling operations were on till Sunday morning. The fire brigade will now investigate the cause of the fire, and, meanwhile, is in the process of issuing a notice to the building for a non-functioning firefighting system.
Hasmukh Parmar, a resident of the neighbouring Breach Candy House, however, claimed that the firefighting apparatus was in good condition. “It has to be operated from a switch on the uppermost floor, which the fire brigade was unaware of,” he said. “Let them send us the notice and we will reply to it.”