E-Paper
Building collapse: ‘When I turned back, I saw the building breaking into pieces’
Twenty-six-year-old Vijay Sharma, of Bhiwani, who alerted the people inside, said that seconds after they stepped out, the building came down in a heap, trapping the four others inside.
Six persons were inside a three-storey building in Khawaspur village on Sunday night, when one of them felt a mild tremor and a sound from the walls. He immediately raised the alarm and rain out to alert other colleagues; however, only two of them made it out safely.
Twenty-six-year-old Vijay Sharma, of Bhiwani, who alerted the people inside, said that seconds after they stepped out, the building came down in a heap, trapping the four others inside.
Sharma said that he woke up around 6.30pm as he suddenly felt tremors, following which he ran out of his room and raised the alarm. “I suddenly realised that the building was on the verge of collapsing and my colleague and I rushed out,” he said
Before leaving, he knocked on the door of another colleague but he was fast asleep, he said. The six people worked the night shift and woke up around 7pm every day, Sharma, who is a shift in-charge, said.
Sharma and Ajay Kumar Mishra (38) ran towards the exit and as soon as they stepped out, they saw the building come down in a heap. “When I turned back, I saw the building breaking into pieces,” he said.
Sharma said the company had bought the warehouse around 18 months ago and had shifted their base here. The warehouse and the three-storey building were in the same compound and barely at a distance of 10 metres. “The employees of another company also slept in the same building. There were multiple issues here and substandard material was used in construction. There were incidents of plaster falling off many times and we had complained to the owner and manager several times, but they did not pay heed,” he said.
Mishra, a native of Madhubani in Bihar, who has been employed with the company as a shift in-charge for the past six years, said that he was sleeping when the walls started cracking. There were four rooms on the first floor, of which three were occupied. One of the workers, Robin, was on the ground floor and we could not inform him. Sharma saved my life and I am indebted to him for risking his life while raising the alarm,” he said.
Both Sharma and Mishra, who have been married for five years and have two children each, said they wanted to return to their families now.
Sharma said that, however, they regret that they couldn’t do more to save the others. “I rushed to the security guard and informed the police control room and Farrukhnagar police station. A PCR reached within minutes followed by several teams. We were in our night suits and could not even pick up our belongings,” he said.
The employees said they had no other place to sleep and were still waiting for their employer to check on them.
