It was chaos, panic, shouts, screams, smoke and bucketfuls of water outside Bandra East station yesterday, as flames of a huge fire raced through Garib Nagar shanties. Nine fire engines and seven jumbo water tankers proved insufficient
It was chaos, panic, shouts, screams, smoke and bucketfuls of water outside Bandra East station yesterday, as flames of a huge fire raced through Garib Nagar shanties. Nine fire engines and seven jumbo water tankers proved insufficient.
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"The police were with BMC officials during the demolition drive, but none of them had the presence of mind to be careful of gas cylinders inside the houses," said Mohammed Iliyas Shaikh, 35, a resident of Behrampada who was there when the fire broke out.
"The first cylinder exploded around 2.10 pm, and yet, BMC officials didn't stop the demolition. They tried to douse the fire while carrying out their drive, but it kept on spreading. Seeing that, all civic officials fled from the spot."
Dilawar Hussain Abdul, 27, who lives with his brother, sister-in-law and their kids in a 1+3 structure next to the skywalk, said the same thing. "They (BMC) didn't stop the demolition process next to the masjid when the first cylinder burst," he alleged.
"As soon as the first cylinder blasted, we called up the fire department, but firemen arrived really late; by then, the blaze had already spread."
Another resident, Mohammed Irshad, 27, who along with Abdul, Shaikh and Behrampada boys was helping out at the spot, said: "We spent over an hour removing the plastic sheets on the roof to stop the fire from spreading further. Only a handful of firemen were really doing their job; the locals did everything."
7
Number of Jumbo water tankers pressed into service
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