Mumbai:
A day after Nitin Ivalekar, a 35-year-old fireman, died while fighting a blaze at a high-rise in suburban Andheri in Mumbai, his distraught family members demanded answers about his untimely death.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade had spent over six hours battling the fire at Lotus Business Park yesterday. Helicopters had to be called in to rescue firefighters trapped on the top floors and the roof of the building.
But Nitin could not be rescued in time; he died of serious burn injuries.
On Saturday morning, when Nitin's body arrived at the headquarters of the Mumbai Fire Brigade at Byculla, his family members refused to cremate it. They demanded a written assurance that they will receive compensation from the authorities, and got it. The body was then taken by the family for last rites.
The incident has raised other questions. With high-rises taking over Mumbai's skyline, the firemen's initial failure to reach the top floors of the building has revealed the fire department's dire need for new equipment.
"How many people were there inside and what happened? I want all the information. How was my husband sent inside? What was he wearing? It was such a huge fire; why was the ladder not used? My husband was not wearing precautionary gear. He was sent in carelessly," Nitin's wife Shubhangi claimed.
But the fire department has claimed that in case of a blaze in a high-rise, the building's own fire-fighting equipment has to work for the fire to be contained in time.
"External measures are only a support system. It is imperative that the firefighting system of these buildings work," said S H Nesrikar, Deputy CFO of the Regional Command Centre of the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
Yesterday, not only did the building's firefighting system fail, but even the staircase got engulfed by the blaze, while glass shards from the glass facade of the building heightened the risk for everyone.
The fire department is now investigating whether the building had the requisite permissions in place and the police have begun recording statements of society members and the fire equipment contractor. But the tragic incident has once again exposed the hidden dangers faced by a city that is only growing vertically.