Fireman Tatoba Patil was injured in the rescue ops, Gulam Bose worked in a shop in Husaini building. (Source: Express photo)
Abdul Latif, a worker in Tawakkal Sweets, had entered the workshop on Husaini Building’s ground floor on Thursday, 20 minutes before the six-storey structure collapsed. Over the next two hours, the 35-year-old scrambled in the dark calling out the names of four other labourers who were right beside him when the building collapsed. “I moved in the dark, stretching my hands but could not find them,” he says.
When the building came crashing down, he was preparing for the day’s work with his supervisor. Latif lives a short distance away near Grant Road with his wife and children.
Thankfully, slabs fell on a rack close by giving him room to breath after the collapse. “I saw a tiny hole. Light was visible and I started pushing the slabs away,” he says. Around two hours after the collapse, Latif managed to push the debris away and managed to reach above the hole. “I started shouting. That is when people spotted me,” Latif said adding that he could not believe he survived. In J J hospital, he is undergoing treatment for head and leg injuries.
Gulam Bose, who has shoulder and knee injuries, worked in a shop adjacent to Latif’s in the Husaini building. He is on a bed close by. Bose works as a contract labour for Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust and sleeps in a tiny shop on the building’s ground floor. Four other labourers who worked with him died in the collapse.
Ahmed Ali (21), the fifth labourer, was the only one to survive the crash. “When I heard the tin shed above us shaking, I thought children must be running on the upper floors. It was normal to hear vibrations due to activities above. When the noise got louder and it started shaking, we realised that the roof was about to fall,” Bose recalled. All six of them ran for the road after opening the shop shutter when the building came crashing down. The shutter was only half-open. “I managed to put a foot outside. I could see the road and then it all went dark,” Bose said.
He started shouting for help. But said he could neither hear the others nor people from outside the road. “There was a cart nearby on which, the wall had fallen. I stayed in that space. If that cart was not there, the wall could have fallen on me,” he said.
Bose also received calls on his phone. His wife called from Uttar Pradesh. But it would get disconnected because of network problems. “It took over an hour, may be more, for others to rescue me,” he says. Later, in the hospital, he called up his wife and two children to inform them about the collapse.
“I was told in the evening that four of my colleagues died. Only Ahmed and I are left,” he said. Ahmed sustained injuries on the knees and legs.
“It pains when he lifts himself up. We will conduct an X-ray of the lower half of his body and the pelvic area to check if there is any fracture,” a doctor treating them said.
Fireman Tatoba Patil (52) suffered chest trauma injury while he operated a machine to break through the bricks for over an hour during the rescue operation. He was in the fire brigade office when a call informing them about the collapse came.
“We reached the spot and started the process of looking for survivors. I was operating the machine that is used to break through bricks,” he said. “There is numbness in my left hand. The grilling exercise is tough and after an hour, I did not feel well,” he added. According to the doctors, he will be discharged in a day.
