Three in Andheri building live to tell the tale thanks to firemen

MUMBAI: Timely action by the fire brigade saved three lives in the Andheri blaze, in which two members of a family died on Tuesday night. Fire had erupted in a 10th floor flat in a 21-storey SRA building while the family in it were celebrating Chhath Puja.

Lalkishor Sharma’s daughter, along with her husband and children, were visiting him. A family member said they were changing a small gas cylinder near the main door when it started leaking. One of them tried to block it with the hand, in vain. A fire broke out as the leaking gas reached a diya (lamp).




As the door started burning, three family members, who were in the kitchen, rushed to the bedroom and locked themselves in. Sharma’s grandson Sagar (7) got trapped in the hall. The boy’s father, Vicky (25), went in the hall to fetch him, but got trapped.

The fire brigade’s access to the building was hindered by the absence of a road of adequate width. When the brigade reached the spot, firefighters found it difficult to go into the burning flat (area 270sqft). They went down to the flat below and shouted if anyone was trapped in the apartment above. Three persons screamed for help from the burning flat’s bedroom’s balcony. Assistant divisional fire officer S K Bandgar said, “The entire hall was burning (firemen found the charred bodies of Vicky and Sagar there). We somehow managed to reach the bedroom’s door, which too was burning. We broke open the door and rescued the three family members.”