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Levana fire will haunt us for the rest of our lives, says firefighter
Some firefighters had to be hospitalised as they fainted and their oxygen levels started depleting as a result of the heavy smoke
Chandresh Yadav (28), Rohit Yadav (26), Sandeep Gupta (28), K.C. Rathore (32) and Jhabbu Ram (41). These are the heroes who battled the toughest of conditions and rescued countless lives from Levana Suites’ second and third floors that were the worst-hit during the Monday’s fire. While four of them are firefighters, Jhabbu Ram is a fire tender driver.
Though it was a collective effort of over 70 firemen who put out the massive fire, Chandresh and the four others showed tremendous courage as they entered the blazing second and third floors, where most of the people were trapped, through the windows. Some firefighters had to be hospitalised as they fainted and their oxygen levels started depleting as a result of the heavy smoke.
Within five minutes of being notified, 17 fire tenders (13 from Lucknow and four from other districts) were at the site and had taken up the rescue operation, said V.K. Singh, chief fire officer, (CFO) Lucknow.
Chandresh Yadav suffered deep cuts from smashing the glass windows. He is one of those who entered the hotel twice and whose bravery was appreciated even by chief minister Yogi Adityanath when the former was admitted to a hospital after the rescue operation.
“I was injured from the start of operation when I smashed through the hotel window. I had to break them with my bare hands because there was nothing else. I am told that my oxygen level had dropped to 70% when I was hospitalised.”
“Soon after I came out of the hotel, I was informed that a person was stuck in the building. So, I went back and found Gurnoor unconsious on the bed. I brought him out immediately through the window,” he added. Gurnoor Singh Anand and his fiancée Sahiba Kaur were among the four people who died in the Levana accident.
Chandresh said he saw Sahiba sitting near a window. “When I touched her, she fell down.”
“Some incident stays with us and haunts us for all our lives. This was one such incident.”
Sandeep recollected the incident: “Since there was fire everywhere we could not use the stairs. We then had to use our ladders to enter the building through the windows. The most difficult part was the extreme smoke, heat and reduced visibility.”
“Due to the smoke and the heat our energy level had gone down but not our motivation. Mid-operation, I was asked by my teammates to go to the hospital, but I decided not to until everyone was safe,” Rohit said.
“We checked every room in the hotel, and our bodies had almost given up,” they added.
Rajesh Kanujiya, Narendra Kumar, Shiv Babu Patel, Pradeep Maurya, Anand Upadhaya, Om Kar Nath Rao and Kamla Prasad were other firefighters who showed terrific bravery.
“As soon as we got the information of the fire around 7:40 am, three vehicles were immediately sent to the spot. The vehicles were out of the station in less than a minute after the alarm bell rang,” V.K. Singh said.
The smoke was so heavy that the firefighter had to use smoke chambers, which are only used in extreme conditions, Singh said, adding that 10 personnel had to be hospitalised.
