Rescue operations on at Husaini building in south Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazar. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran
Ismail Bharmal had a close shave on Thursday after he decided against visiting the family of his son-in-law, in Husaini Building in Bhendi Bazaar. “Had I gone there today, it would have been around the time that the building came down,” said Bharmal, who was making phone calls for news of the Chashmawala family and kept glancing at the excavators and cranes digging through the rubble a few feet away.
Sakina Chashmawala, Bharmal’s daughter Rasheeda’s sister-in-law, was going to visit Rasheeda in Dubai next week. “I was supposed to go to drop off a package for my daughter in the morning. But for some reason, I decided to go to their home on Wednesday itself. Nothing was wrong with the building then,” said Bharmal.
Answering unending phone calls, Bharmal was standing at a corner of Pakmodia Street and had a clear view of the building which came down at 8.30 am. He also tried to calm down relatives of other families stuck in the rubble, who had come to him to exchange information about survivors.
By the end of the day, Sakina (40), her husband Abbas Chashmawala (40), their son Ahmadatuallah Chashmawalla (3) and Abbas’s father Nasiruddin Chashmawala (71) were declared dead at JJ Hospital after their bodies were found in the rubble. Abbas’ mother Taslim Chashmawala (63) was rescued alive from the collapsed structure and rushed to hospital. The Chashmawala family own the eye-wear store Abbas Opticians on Mohammad Ali Road.
Dead body of an infant being carried out from the rubbles at the collapse site. Over 20 killed and many others feared trapped in a building collapse at South Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazar on Thursday morning.Express photo by Nirmal Harindran, 31st August 2017, Mumbai.
Bharmal, who lives just down the road in Bhendi Bazaar, was also concerned about 28-year-old Jujan Arsiwalla, who lost his parents Hassan and Taslim in the crash. The Arsiwala family runs a glassware shop on Abdul Rehman Street.
Locals at the site of the collapse were most worried, however, for the fate of the Lightwalla family, of which 10 members, including a 15-day-old child, were feared trapped under the rubble until late evening on Thursday.
Other Bhendi Bazaar residents spent the day assisting the search and rescue teams of the Mumbai Fire Brigade and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and were the first to organise themselves to keep out curious onlookers from crowding the site and hampering rescue efforts.
It was not until 3 pm that entrances to the site from JJ Road and other adjoining lanes were barricaded by the police. Until then, it was left to locals to block the lanes with whatever they could find.
With overeager onlookers frequently breaking though the police cordon, it fell to residents to ensure that the road remained clear for the passage of ambulances and trucks carting away debris from the site.
Over 20 killed and many others feared trapped in a building collapse at South Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazar on Thursday morning.Express photo by Nirmal Harindran, 31st August 2017, Mumbai.
Farida Mansuri, a member of the mohalla committee at JJ Marg police station, said theirs was among the first citizen groups to mobilise themselves. However, even after Mansuri screamed herself hoarse on a megaphone pleading with the crowds to back away and allow the authorities to do their job, her pleas fell on deaf ears. “No one here is ready to listen to the police. I know that people are eager to help, but they are interfering with rescue efforts,” said Mansuri. She and her fellow mohalla committee members then focused on ensuring a steady supply of food and water to the police, fire brigade and NDRF personnel.
A few steps away from the harried Mansuri, 22-year-old Mohammad Taha, with his black shirt and trousers coated in mud, kept his eyes fixed on the search operations. Taha and a few other men were having tea at a stall across the road when they saw the building crashing down before their eyes.
“The building came down with a loud crash. About 20 of us ran to the spot and began digging up stones with our hands. We managed to pull out about five people before the fire brigade arrived,” he said.
Conversation in the locality all day was dominated by what might have happened had the building come down after 10 am, when 20-odd children would be inside Tulip nursery on Husaini’s building’s first floor.
