Mumbai: Fourteen metal pipes were all that had held up the Sai Darshan Society building, and were being used as replacements on the ground floor for the columns that had been removed during renovation by accused Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, BMC engineers at the site said on Wednesday.
The two-wing five-storey building on LBS Road came crashing down around 10.40 a.m. on Tuesday, claiming 17 lives and injuring 30 others including two firemen, who were hurt during the rescue operation. The ground floor housed a nursing home which had been undergoing renovation.
A BMC officer who was part of the rescue operation said the pipes were badly damaged and bent out of shape when they were found among the rubble. Civic workers dug out 14 pipes from the debris, which will be turned over to the police.
Birendra Singh, a resident of the building, said, “These pipes were placed as substitutes when the pillars were broken. There is no way Shitap had permission to do something like this, which compromised the safety of the building.” Mr. Singh lived on the first floor with his wife and two children. He was at work and the rest of the family was out when the building collapsed. Though they escaped with their lives, they lost everything.
“I had bought a house in this building by availing a loan of ₹33 lakh. We are safe, but I don’t see myself being able to build a future for my children. I have lost all my cash and valuables, but was able to salvage some important documents on Wednesday,” he said.
All residents had similar stories. Lalchand Ramchandani said, “I visited the site of the collapse on Wednesday to see if I could retrieve some of my money, jewellery or even clothes but could not find anything. I haven’t even changed out of the clothes I was wearing on Tuesday. We are trying to figure where to go from here.”
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the BMC called off the search for survivors at 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday after the bodies of the last of the victims, three members of the Deora family, were recovered from the debris. BMC workers and citizen volunteers subsequently salvaged whatever valuables and cash they could find and turned it over to the police.