‘Saw a hand sticking out of rubble’: How Peeragarhi man found a survivor

Vijay Mehra, a driver with a municipality veterinary hospital said when he reached the spot and he looked at the rubble, he found a hand sticking out of it.

When the fire in an Okaya building in outer Delhi’s Peeragarhi seemed under control on Thursday morning, Vijay Mehra, a driver with a municipality veterinary hospital next door, went back to sleep. At 7 am, he was once again awakened by the sound of a loud explosion, which he said sounded like a bomb blast.

A firefighter being rescued by the fire officials after a fire breaks out in a factory and collapsed at Peera Garhi area in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)

“When I climbed the hospital wall and looked at the rubble, I found a hand sticking out of the rubble,” said Mehra.

That hand was that of Manjeet Rana, one of the three firemen trapped in the debris of the building that collapsed. “I could see the man screaming ‘main yahan hoon’ (I am here), but there was no way any of us could reach him,” said Mehra.

What wasn’t visible to Mehra and others around him was Amit Baliyan, another fire fighter who was buried even deeper. “He wasn’t even visible, but we were able to communicate with him. He was making sounds and we were telling him that we would save him,” said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services.

In the meantime, the rescuers had climbed the hospital walls and had lowered a rope to Rana. “He (Mehra) couldn’t see anything, but could hear us. The rope kept touching his hand, but he wasn’t able to grab it. When he finally managed to grab it, he was pulled out just enough so that he could breathe properly,” said Mehra’s colleague, Ajmer Narwal.

Rahul Kumar Singh, an inspector with NDRF, said that when Rana was pulled out of the debris a little, he begged for water. “He said he needed water and was unable to breathe properly. We gave him some water and put an oxygen mask on him. Pulling him out at that moment would have put his life at risk,” said Singh.

Rana was pulled out at 10.40am, but not before he suffered multiple fractures and a host of internal injuries. “He was in visible pain, but was alive . He was shivering in the cold as his uniform was wet, so we wrapped him up in blankets,” said Singh.

Till that point, rescuers were also hopeful of bringing out Baliyan, who was able to communicate in a very limited way. “At one point he shouted, ‘bacha lo’ (save me). We asked him to relax him and assure him that we were all there for him,” said Garg.

But soon after Rana was pulled out, another hanging portion of the building collapsed further, burying Balyan deeper. “That snapped our communication with him,” said Garg. Thereafter, the rescuers heard no more noises from the rubble as Baliyan stayed buried till 2.18 pm.

When Baliyan was pulled out, he was still breathing, but his body showed no movements. He was pulled out on a stretcher and moved to a hospital in less than 10 minutes, but was declared brought dead.

“We hoped for a miracle after bringing out Baliyan, but it would have been difficult to survive after being buried under such heavy rubble for over seven hours,” said Singh.

Another fire officer involved in the rescue said Baliyan had also texted his family immediately after getting trapped to inform them about his situation. Baliyan’s relatives and fire department officials, however, denied receiving any such text message from him.

Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal later announced a financial assistance of Rs 1 crore for Baliyan’s family.