Five killed, 10 injured after slab of building collapses at Thane district’s Ulhasnagar

Five people were killed, while 10 others suffered minor injuries after the slab of a ground-plus-five-storey residential building Mohini Palace at Ulhasnagar’s Charandas Chowk collapsed on Saturday afternoon

Five people were killed, while 10 others suffered minor injuries after the slab of a ground-plus-five-storey residential building Mohini Palace at Ulhasnagar’s Charandas Chowk collapsed on Saturday afternoon.

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The victims have been identified as Milind Parche, 12, and his grandmother Savitri, 60, who lived on the first floor; Haresh Dotwal, 43, his wife Sandhya, 40, and daughter Aishwarya, 23, who lived in a single terrace flat above the fourth floor.

The incident took place around 1.30pm when the ceiling of fourth floor fell on the floors below. As per UMC, eight families lived in the building at the time of the incident, with the ground floor housing shops.

As soon as the portion collapsed, residents rushed out of the structure.

“I lived with my wife on the fourth floor. I was watching TV when I heard loud noises thrice one after another. My wife and I rushed out of the building through the staircase, which is behind the structure,” said a resident, Devidas Bachwani, 61.

A team of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation’s (UMC) fire brigade with three fire tenders reached the spot and initiated the rescue operations to pull out those trapped inside the building. Around 10 people were evacuated from the building. The team managed to evacuate some of the residents after breaking the grilles of their windows.

“A portion of the roof of the hall on the fourth floor collapsed. Our fire brigade team managed to rescue 10 persons, out of which two are admitted to Central Hospital with minor injuries, while others were released after treatment,” said UMC commissioner Raja Dayanidhi.

Meanwhile, the rescue operations for the five people trapped inside the debris was initiated by the Thane disaster response force (TDRF) around 5.15pm. Thirty minutes later, Milind was pulled out from the debris. A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also reached the spot around 6.40 pm and joined the rescue operations. The other four victims were also pulled out from the debris. They were rushed to Central Hospital, where they were declared dead.

The rescue operations were called off around 10 pm after the last body was removed from the debris.

NDRF’s deputy commandant Ashish Kumar said, “As the slabs on the centre of the building had collapsed, we had to be very careful during the rescue operation, as we still had to find one body that was missing. The remaining portions of the slabs were hanging due to which we had to do the work slowly.”

According to UMC records, the building was constructed in 1994 (27 years old) and is not in the list of dangerous structures.

However, Ganesh Shimpi, assistant commissioner ward committee 1, UMC, said, “The terrace flat which the building had above the fourth floor is illegal. We will inquire on this angle and take necessary action.”

Bachwani claimed that he had been complaining about the dilapidated state of the building to UMC and the local police since the past three years.

“A year ago, my son and his wife left the house saying they didn’t want to live in danger. I have been complaining about the state of the building since three years but nobody cared about it. A year ago, the building had developed cracks on the backside. People have now died due to negligence,” said Bachwani.

In August 2013, a structure, Mahak Apartments collapsed, leaving around 200 homeless. As residents took to protests, the state government asked the civic body chief to regularise illegal structures and redevelop the dangerous ones. Though UMC had begun the process, it has now come to a standstill.

“The civic body has already started serving notices to dangerous buildings. The owners are asked to conduct structural audits. From June, the civic body will be taking action against those buildings that are in the dangerous structures’ list,” added Dayanidhi.