The toll in the “Huseini Building” building collapse mounted to 33 on Friday, even as the Mumbai fire brigade and National Disaster National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel winded up their 27-hour-long search operation at the crashed structure site at the congested Bhendi Bazar locality in downtown south Mumbai.
During the operation, the fire brigade and NDRF personnel rescued 51 persons from under the debris of the six-storey building, which caved in like a proverbial pack of cards at 8.30 am on Thursday.
Those killed in the mishap comprised 20-day-old male child, 23 men and nine women. “In all, 14 are undergoing treatment at our hospital. They consist of 11 residents of the building and three fire brigade personnel,” said Dean of the State-run JJ hospital Dr TP lahane.
The rescuers – comprising 90-member team of NDRF and 150-strong team of fire brigade personnel – winded up the debris clearance operation around 10.30 am on Friday.
The State Government has, meanwhile, entrusted State Additional Chief Secretary (Housing) Sanjay Kumar with the task of holding a detailed enquiry into the circumstances leading to the incident and fixing the responsibility.
Simultaneously, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to submit a report on the incident to the State Government.
The ground plus six storey-building, which housed 12 residential tenements and a commercial premises, had crashed in the wake of Tuesday’s cloudburst which the metropolis registered a record 325 mm rainfall.
Fortunately, 20-odd children, enrolled with a nursery-cum-playgroup school located on the ground floor of “Huseini Building” had a providential escape, as the mishap took place at least an hour before they were scheduled to arrive at the school.
The building, owned by the Bohri Muslim community-controlled Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT), had been in a “dangerous” condition for the past six years.
The State-run Maharashtra Housing and Area Development (MHADA) had issued notices to residents in the building on March 28, 2011 and May 20, 2011, declaring the structure as “dilapidated” and asking the occupants to move out to transit accommodation. The trust had moved out seven families during 2013-14.
The building was awaiting re-development under a cluster development scheme of the MHADA. The residents had not moved out of the dilapidated building despite repeated reminders from the authorities.