NEW DELHI: It was a déjà vu for head
constable Manoj on Wednesday when he had to use his presence of mind to save the life of a woman from a burning house in Paharganj’s Chuna Mandi. She had no escape route from the blaze other than the balcony and she dangled from the grill precariously, her grip loosening by the minute, until she felt someone helping her to safety.
It was in fire prone Chuna Mandi too that Manoj had saved the life of Niharika, an 11-year-old mentally challenged girl, around the same time last year. She was trapped inside the locked room where her mother had left her when leaving for the market nearby. A short circuit triggered a fire in the house and it took all of Manoj’s courage to dash in and save the girl.
Like the earlier occasion, Manoj did not wait for the fire fighters to arrive before taking up the arduous mission to save Ganga Devi’s life, this time with the help of two
police colleagues. “Last year’s incident was my first experience with a house fire, and I was definitely nervous then. My training, however, proved helpful and I was able to go inside,” said the brave policeman. “This time, there were no second thoughts. As soon as I saw the flames, I informed two of my colleagues and we rushed into the building.”
The three cops did not have it easy, though. “Sandeep stood on the parapet, bracing himself against the wall with one hand and holding a ladder with the other,” Manoj recollected. “Then he asked the woman to grip his leg and climb up. During this
rescue attempt, there was a moment when we slipped and with us, the ladder and the woman. But luckily, we regained balance and managed to pull her to safety.”
Manoj added drily, “Had we failed in this operation, it could have resulted in fatalities.” Chuna Mandi is a tinderbox and several fires break out in the area. The congested lanes compound the efforts of the fire services to combat the blazes.
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