Mumbai : “We thought our officers on the ground would ensure our safety but they failed us,’’ say firemen who narrowly escaped death after being trapped on the terrace of the 22-storey Lotus Business Park on Friday.
Those men who resumed duty on Sunday blamed their officers for not backing them up. “Give us fire officers who know the job rather than guys who are busy signing inspection reports all the time,’’ said a bitter fireman who requested anonymity.
The details given to the FPJ by these men show that the Mumbai fire brigade lacks the expertise to tackle a high-rise fire.
“The fire on the 22nd floor was a minor one and we had put it out by 11 am and were into cooling operations. Banter was being exchanged and even Nitin Yevlekar, the fireman who perished, was in a chirpy mood,’’ said a fireman.
The firemen said they did not realise that the hot air had travelled down the duct meant for wires and resulted in a flash fire on the fifth floor. From there, it travelled upwards and the 21st floor caught fire.
“It was crucial to have consistent pressure in the pipeline to quell this fire but the pressure fluctuated,’’ said firemen. They said that the high-pressure pump they brought with them failed and was dumped on the 15th floor.
As the fire spread on the 21st floor, it burnt the hose pipe as well, leaving the 33 men on the 22nd floor stranded. The officers on the ground failed to send another batch of men up the stairs with a pipeline, the firemen said.
There were as many as 92 officers and men and 23 fire-tenders monitoring the situation from the ground. However, the trapped firemen said they failed to stop the smoke emanating on the fifth floor from spreading upwards. Firemen said that the officers on the ground relied solely on the lone 68-metre snorkel ladder. They said a pipeline could have been passed on to them using the snorkel ladder but this too did not happen. This was finally done at 4 pm after the fire had been quelled and the trapped men had been rescued from the staircase.
Firemen said they could have been evacuated using the rope-and-rescue technique, where a rope line is shot into the building using a gun. “We perform these drills and there is a special squad for it but it was not used when most needed,’’ said the firemen.
Asked why some firemen were barefoot, they said that the intense heat from the 21st floor started melting their gumboots as they stood on the 22nd floor.There was no emergency medical service team at the site and neither was there any provision to provide refreshments to firemen who were fed by onlookers.
These firemen want the fire officer who gave approval to the high-rise to be tried for manslaughter. They pointed out that Lotus Business Park did not have two staircases as is required in a high-rise, its floors were not numbered, and it did not have sprinklers. It had a large enclosed space on the terrace which is not permitted. Worst, the fire-fighting system of the five-year-old building was non-functional. It was clear from the chat with the firemen that unless confidence-building measures are taken, they would hesitate to rush into a high-rise on fire.
Sachin Unhalekar
