13 October,2020 11:33 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Photo for representational purpose
At least 14 people got stuck in lifts due to the sudden grid failure on Monday and had to be rescued by the fire brigade in six different incidents. "Nobody was seriously injured but we received six distress calls - two from south-central Mumbai and one each from Andheri, Kandivali, Malad and Amboli. Six people were rescued in the city, and eight in suburbs," said an official from the BMC's Disaster Management Cell.
As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, an 18-year-old coconut vendor was trapped in a lift on the 13th floor of Veena Serenity complex in Chembur's Shell Colony. Mohammed Anwar Shaikh sells coconuts outside the complex and had come to C Wing of the complex. "I must have been stuck for 15 to 20 minutes. I had the number of the security and called them. They managed to open the lift door with a key," he said.
Bakul Gala, who works with a leading airline, said fortunately no residents of the complex were trapped, but the incident made the residents realise that the maintenance and security staff deployed at the complex were untrained to deal with an emergency.
"There were some challenges due to the power grid failure, and the incident brings us to the question whether new constructions in our city are crisis ready?" said Gala. He said the lifts were supposed to have an auto rescue mechanism, which ensures that the lift travels to the closest next floor and the door opens automatically. "This device did not work today. A coconut vendor was trapped inside the lift for close to 25 minutes. The maintenance team didn't know where are the keys of the lift are, where the generator is, how to operate the generator. They didn't know where the fire extinguisher was, and how to operate it. When we enquired with them, they said they were not trained in doing all this," Gala said.
Several amenities in this complex are on the roof-top which requires the elevators of the three 15-storey towers to function smoothly.
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