More than 100 Mumbai firemen were involved in the rescue operations on 26/11

26/11 Mumbai attacks: Firemen recall how hotels were strewn with dead bodies and blood

All the firemen remember grenades being flung at them from the Oberoi Trident and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Fireman Yuvraj Pawar, who was stationed at Colaba fire station on November 26, 2008, recalled one silver lining: “Fortunately, the terrorists couldn’t aim.”

Fireman used smoke as defence against the terrorists (HT PHOTO)

There were over 100 firemen involved in rescue operations during the attacks of 26/11 and though, not all won awards for their efforts, every fireman showed exemplary courage. PS Rahangdale, currently the chief fire officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade and the assistant fire officer at Colaba fire station in 2008, said, “Firemen always take calculated risks, but this rescue operation was beyond all calculations.”

Rahangdale and Pawar were among those who received gallantry awards. They were part of the team that took the fire tender to the Oberoi Trident on November 26. Rahangdale remembers a gruesome sight awaited the firemen when they entered the hotel. “There was a girl sitting at the reception… when I went closer, I saw that she was dead and half her skull was smashed. We brought back her dead body along with the chair. There was no time for emotion. Many needed our help,” he said. “We rescued around 100-150 people that day from Trident,” recalled Pawar. “This went on even as there were grenades being thrown at us. Fortunately, the terrorists could not aim. A few grenades fell near the fire tender, but did not explode.”

The situation at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was literally a trial by fire for the officers.

For four days and nights, fire tenders from the suburbs were diverted to the Colaba hotel. Pawar said, “We were rescuing people from all sides [of the hotel]. I specifically remember that when we were rescuing people from the new Taj building in BEST buses, terrorists were throwing grenades from the heritage hotel. At one point, we had to stop the rescue till NSG commandos gave us cover and then we continued.”

On November 29, there was a fire under the dome of the heritage hotel. Rahangdale, Pawar, two more firemen and two commandos went inside to use the building’s inbuilt fire safety system because the hosepipes were not long enough to reach the fire. Rahangdale said they could hear gunshots.

“We had no bulletproof jackets or arms with us. The only defence we had was smoke. We as firemen knew how to tackle it, but the terrorists probably did not,” he said. Pawar remembers the hotel was strewn with blood, body parts and dead bodies.

The rescue was dangerous work. “At midnight on 26th… a policeman standing next to our ambulance was shot in his head from above,” remembered driver Bhagwan Jadhav.

“On the last day we were inside our fire tender near Taj when we saw a man fall out of the hotel. He was the last terrorist.”