In a virtual miracle, the rescuers on Saturday afternoon pulled out alive 55-year-old Chandrakant Jadhav from under the debris of a four-storey BMC-owned building more than 30 hours after it collapsed, even as the toll in the crash mounted to 54 in the night.
When the hopes of rescuing those trapped under the debris began receding, the personnel of the fifth battalion of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) — working in tandem with the Mumbai Police fire brigade — were in for pleasant surprise, as they rescued Jadhav from under the mounds of rubble at 3 pm, 33 hours after the structure caved in.
Jadhav was rushed to the State-run JJ Hospital, where he is fast recovering. However, a 29-year-old Marathi journalist Yogesh Pawar was not so lucky. The personnel recovered the body of Pawar, a reporter with Sakal’s Mumbai edition, in the evening from the rubbles of the BMC-owned building near the Babu Genu Market off the Dockyard Road station at Mazgaon in south Mumbai.
Pawar was living with his father on the second floor of the ill-fated building. His father’s body had been found on Friday afternoon.
In all, 32 persons were injured in the mishap. The injured are undergoing treatment at the JJ Hospital
Among those killed in the mishap, there was a four-year-old girl, identified as one Avani Solanki. Besides, the bodies of 19 women and 32 men have so far been recovered. Of the killed, the bodies of eight have not been identified yet.
Even the rescue operation began around 7 am on Friday, eight people who had
been trapped under the debris, have been rescued.
Given that the BMC had pegged the number of persons living in the building at 89, the rescuers had accounted for 91 persons — 52 recovered bodies, 31 injured persons and eight rescued alive.
“We have entered the final phase of rescue operations. Since we have either rescued alive or extricated the bodies of most of the persons living in the building. Now there are slim chances of more survivors. But we will our operation, till the last man is taken out from the under debris,” Alok Avasthy, 5th battalion commandant of NDRF said.