10 February,2011 06:54 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Friends and colleagues of three canteen workers who died in the basement fire recall them as hard-working staffers and always willing to help
PEOPLE working at Bombay House lost a friend, hard-working colleague and their favourite cook of Parsi dishes when a blaze gutted the building's basement last morning.
Ishwar Patel (40) was one of three workers at the basement canteen of the Tata Group headquarters who lost their life to asphyxia while trying to escape the flames.
A body being rolled out of Bombay House where flames engulfed the canteen in the basement yesterday.
Though Patel was originally from Gujarat, he had found family in the Deniar Sagars, a Parsi household where he worked as a help.
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Though no one from Patel's family was there to mourn his death, 45-year-old Raj Pereira was inconsolable. Both Pereira and Patel had been adopted by the Sagars and began sharing a flat in Naigaon after the family moved abroad.
Patel had been working at Bombay House for 12 years and friends and colleagues, who were more then family for him, performed his last rites at the Chandanwadi cremation ground in Marine Lines last evening.
"Ishwar was a no-nonsense person. He believed in working hard and never interfered in others' lives. But, if you ever needed his help, he was there for you at any hour.
Fire fighters extinguish the flames
He lived up to his name," said James Maslamani, who knows Raj and Patel since childhood.
While Raj lost a brother, the Wadias and Pawars lost their sons. 25-year-old Farhad Wadia was a resident of Grant Road and worked as a cashier in the canteen. The family was not in a state to speak.
Like Raj, Hemant Pawar, a Nalasopara resident, lost his brother Sushant (30) in the fire. "Sushant's job was to deliver food from RTI in Babulnath to Bombay House. I wish he had not gone to work," said a teary Hemant.
Asphyxia
Doctors at the St George Hospital conducted a post mortem on the body and asphyxia (severe deficient supply of oxygen) was identified as the cause of death.
"We have preserved blood samples and sent them for further forensic examination," said a doctor.
Dr C Gaikwad, medical superintendent of the hospital, said, "None of the patients have suffered burn injuries. The three workers died of suffocation from excessive carbon monoxide."
Fire Chief Uday Tatkare said, "The exact reason of the fire is not known yet. It did not originate in the canteen or in the auditorium but in an office room.
A short circuit may have been the trigger, but it hasn't been confirmed yet."
He added that canteens and auditoriums are generally not allowed in the basement of a building and fire officials will be looking into the permissions taken for them at Bombay House.
Survivor's tale
Recollecting the moments of fear, Shivaji Desai (56), who works in the maintenance department and was stuck in the building for nearly an hour-and-a-half, said, "At times, there are false alarms and I thought the same had happened this time too.
But, when I tried to reset it, I realised there was an actual fire. A peon came running to me and we both tried to come out, but we couldn't."
"Later, when the smoke reduced, I came out and helped the fire brigade officials in the rescue operation," he added.
Desai is admitted in ward 6 of St George Hospital.
