Alert locals make human pyramid to rescue stranded residents

Guddu said, When we saw the smoke, we ran towards the building and heard a scream from a lady from one of the windows of the building. My friends and I made a human pyramid, and I climbed to the first floor of the building. I used the grills to go up further to the 4th floor and rescue the lady. The lady was saying she wanted to jump, but I held her, and we got her down with the help of my friends

Mumbai: After witnessing smoke billowing into the sky from the Rail View housing society in Chembur East on Saturday, local boys from the area, coolies and taximen rushed to the spot to flag the fire incident, and to help stranded residents.

Alert locals make human pyramid to rescue stranded residents

Guddu Ramsinghasan Nishad, 34-year-old lives in the Tilak Nagar area, and works as a coolie and Satish Singh, 36, a taxi driver was amongst the first ones to reach the spot and were seen climbing up the building, using the grill to rescue a stranded lady.

Guddu said, “When we saw the smoke, we ran towards the building and heard a scream from a lady from one of the windows of the building. My friends and I made a human pyramid, and I climbed to the first floor of the building. I used the grills to go up further to the 4th floor and rescue the lady. The lady was saying she wanted to jump, but I held her, and we got her down with the help of my friends.”

Guddu and Satish also rescued Saina Shaikh, who was seen stranded on the parapet of the building.

Ujwal Sakharam Khadye, 34, was also among the first ones to reach the building with his friends from the nearby area after he received a call about a fire that broke out in his friend’s building.

Ujjawal said, “I broke the glass on the fire emergency button with my hand and ran up to rescue the people. The temperatures were very high on the 10th, 11th and 12th floors; we rescued people till the firefighters reached the spot. We are a friend’s group from the area and we all went on different floors to get people out of the building.” Ujjawal sustained a minor injury on his hand while breaking the glass.

Along with Ujjawal, Rahul Shivasharan, 24, a resident of the building was also part of the group that rescued citizens, and said, “we immediately went knocking on the doors and got people out from the building. We used the fire extinguishers in the building to douse the fire but it was difficult to find where the fire was, there was heavy smoke emitting from the garbage duct. The 12th floor was filled with smoke. We wanted to get as many people as possible out of the building. The fire brigade reached and broke the door on the flat of the 12th floor to see if there was any fire inside.” Rahul also shared that 4 people, part of the same family residing on the 10th floor, were among those who had to be taken to the hospital due to suffocation.

A total of six people were admitted to the ICU in the SRV hospital in Chembur.