Helicopters pressed into service to save 31 trapped on top floors of Mumbai building
One fireman was killed and 20 of his colleagues injured, as the Mumbai Fire Brigade personnel battled a massive blaze that engulfed the top two floors of a 22-storey commercial building, lotus Business Park, at Andheri in north Mumbai on Friday. The fire proved fatal for 35-year-old fireman Nitin Baburao Inglekar, who succumbed to severe burn wounds before he was rushed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Cooper Hospital.
Four out of the 20 injured firemen were subsequently taken to the Burns Hospital at Airoli in Navi Mumbai, where they were stated to be “out of danger” by the doctors attending on them. In a first-of-its-kind aerial rescue operation witnessed during a fire in the metropolis in recent years, the Navy and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnel used helicopters to rescue 31 firefighters, including officers, trapped on the 21st and 22nd floors of the building located on the busy Andheri link Road.
There was considerable drama at lotus Business Park, which houses the offices and production set-ups of several film and television personalities, including actor Hrithik Roshan, as the Navy and ICG personnel lowered ropes on the terrace of the building to rescue the stranded firemen.
The rescuers airlifted nine firefighters from the terrace, while they brought to safety another 23 personnel stranded on the 22nd floor of the burning building, where as many as 215 city fire brigade personnel, including 31 officers, valiantly battled with the inferno - that at one stage threatened to spread to lower floors of the structure — for nearly nine hours.
Though Mumbai witnessed similar rescue operations in multiple locations during the November 26-29, 2008 fidayeen attacks, this was for the time that the Navy and ICG personnel used helicopters to rescue people trapped in a fire on the scale witnessed on Friday - a thing that had not happened on June 21, 2012 when helicopters were used to survey the fire-hit Mantralaya (state secretariat) in South Mumbai.
The fire was noticed on the 22nd floor of the building at around 9.30 am. Employees working in the building alerted the nearby fire station, which rushed fire engines and personnel immediately to the site. However, the blaze spread to the 21st floor of the building. Such was the intensity of the fire that leaping flames and billowing smoke could be seen from miles away. The mishap resulted in a major traffic jam in Andheri (West) where some of the roads were blocked to the fire-fighting operations.
Over two dozen fire tenders, several snorkels, water tankers, jumbo tankers and ambulances were rushed to the spot. At the request of the Mumbai Fire Brigade personnel, public sector undertakings and institutions like the Mumbai Port Trust, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, Bharat and Hindustan Petroleum, Thane and Navi Mumbai Corporation rushed in their fire engines and personnel to assist the Mumbai Fire Brigade in their operation.
However, after word spread that 33 firemen were stranded on the top two floors of the building, the city fire brigade requisitioned the help of the Indian Navy and ICG to rescue them. While the Indian Navy deployed a Seeking Charlie helicopter for the rescue operation, the ICG sent out a Chetak helicopter from 842 Squadron to the site of the mishap.
The ICG chopper arrived on the scene at 2.28 pm and assessed the situation, all the while battling strong winds and rain coupled with smoke from the blaze. later, lauding the brave firemen who risked their lives to put out the blaze, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan heaped praise on the Mumbai Fire Brigade. “I salute the city’s fire brigade personnel for their efforts. I am shocked to learn about the death of a fireman,” he said.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Sunil Nasrekar said: “It was a difficult operation. Strong winds came in the way of our extinguishing the fire. What complicated matters was the fact that it was a glass building. Hot glass shreds fell from the burning floors to other floors, causing more fire and smoke.”