Parked cars on narrow lanes hinder fire brigade

The parking of several cars on both sides of the narrow road leading to Sargam Society, Tilak Nagar, is being blamed for the rise in casualties in Thursday’s fire.
A local, Ashok Satardekar said, “Fire brigade officers told me that they were unable to deploy their tall ladders because their fire engines simply could not enter the lane. Cars were parked on both sides of the road. Local boys called out for the vehicles’ owners, waited for a while and finally removed the cars all by themselves from the road, placing them on the footpath.” Satardekar, a former president of the local ganpati mandal, said, “Sargam Society used to be a two-storey structure of 36 tenements before it was redeveloped recently into a 15-storey tower. There are over 100 flats now. Every building in Tilak Nagar faces the same predicament. Naturally, with more families, there are more cars, but no parking space. So they all park in narrow lanes. Even garbage vans find it difficult to enter in the morning.”

A Sargam resident, Shrinivas Joshi (86), is critical, in Rajawadi Hospital. A fireman, Chagan Singh (28), was admitted to the hospital with injuries, though his condition is stated to be stable.

Sarala was at home along with her husband and mother-in-law when fire started in the opposite flat. Her husband managed to walk out and she along with her mother-in-law rushed out somewhere in search of a safer place and went missing. Before their bodies were found, Sarla’s brother Bharat said, “We tried to contact them over the phone but they were not contactable. We are waiting for them.” After a two-hour search, the bodies of the two women were found.

A resident said, “The owner of the flat where the fire started rushed down to call others for help. But upon his return, he found that the fire had spread through the entire flat. After that a cylinder explosion occurred, spreading the fire.”

A neighbour said, “We came to rescue, but were unable to do anything. People on the lower floors were downstairs, but those on the upper floors were trapped.”

Medical superintendent Of Rajawadi Hospital Dr Vidya Thakur said, “Two who were brought here have sustained burn injuries. Among the deceased, two had burn injuries and three seemed to have succumbed to smoke inhalation. The cause of death will however be confirmed only after autopsy.”

Even three hours after the fire, many people were waiting outside the building informing fire officers about missing family members and relatives. Fire fighters broke doors after people told them they feared that residents were trapped in flats. This helped locate two persons and rescue them. Both were unconscious and were shifted to the hospital.

Young members of the local Maharashtra Aikyavardhak Ganpati Mandal helped in the rescue operations. Vishal Bilaye of the mandal said, “Three bodies were removed one after the other before our very eyes. Neighbouring flats have been burnt to cinders owing to winds at that height. We saw fire fighters taking rescued people to the terrace of the nearby wing.”

(Inputs by Sumitra Deb Roy and S Ahmed Ali)