Narrowly escaped death: Survivor

MUMBAI: “I just stepped out of the building and the building collapsed like a pack of cards,” said Zubeda, a maid working in the fateful Kesarbai building that collapsed on Tuesday morning at Dongri, in Mumbai. According to the locals, 13 families were residing in the building.

Zubeda has been working as a housemaid at Master Saheb’s (a resident of the building) house.

Recounting her near-death experience, Zubeda said she came to the building in the morning as usual. She finished her daily dose of chores in the house and went downstairs to collect clothes of Master Saheb’s son from the laundry. As soon as she stepped out of the building, the building crumbled suddenly. 

“I could not realise what was happening. The building started to shake and people started shouting, asking me to run away from the building,” Zubeda said. 

“It was a near-death experience for me and I really thank god that I am alive,” Zubeda said.
She is not aware whether the Master Saheb and his family are alive or not as the police are not allowing anyone to go near the building collapse site. 

The local residents said that they heard loud noises and everyone in the vicinity started shouting that the building is coming down.

The building was constructed in a narrow lane of the area. The lanes are narrow and it was difficult for the Mumbai Fire Brigade and NDRF team to reach the spot and carry out rescue work. They could not get their JCB machine to remove the debris from the spot. 

“As we could not remove the debris with the JCB or other machines it has become very difficult to trace and rescue. Hence, there is less possibility to rescue the people alive,” said a fire brigade official. 

At least 11 people have been killed and over 40 are feared trapped after a 100-year-old four-storey building collapsed in Dongri. Twelve people have been rescued so far.