Fire officials rubbish allegations that their personnel coaxed victims to jump

When panic struck the smoke-filled Carlton Towers, with 100-odd people stuck inside, five of them jumped off the building, with fatal consequences. A day after the incident, there is still confusion as to who asked them to jump off the building. While witnesses alleged that the fire and emergency service officials asked those stuck on the sixth floor to jump down, the department categorically denied this.

DGP, fire department, Jija Madhavan Hari Singh, said her officers had not forced people to jump off the building. “Those who jumped off the building did so in sheer panic. They were seen jumping onto mattresses and makeshift nets. But we do not have nets to ask people to jump on to,” she said.

She said witnesses might have mistaken the law and order policemen for fire fighters. “Using nets to rescue people by asking them to jump has been banned for long. We do not use this method of rescue in the state. People might have mistaken the police for fire fighters. The 200 fire personnel were only trying to douse the fire and rescue people,” she said.

Even Ramakrishne Gowda, leading fireman, who reached the spot at 4.30 pm, said that the firemen were trying to rescue people only through the existing exits. “When we reached, there were over 50 people gasping for breath through windows. Three teams of fire fighters entered the building, but five minutes into the rescue operations, three had already leapt to death,” he said.

However, another fire fighter, on anonymity, told DNA that a few fire fighters had helped the public in persuading the people to jump onto mattresses.

But, PS Sandhu, IG-cum-additional DG of the fire department, said, “No fire fighter in his senses would do that. When fire fighters saw people jump, they tried to prevent them from falling on the ground.”

The five people who made the fatal jumps included Surabhi Joshi, Benzi Kumari, Fayyaz Pasha, Madan and Sunil Iyer. Though the fire officials claimed that these people jumped off even before they reached the spot, witnesses alleged that they saw officials coaxing people to jump onto mattresses laid with cushions and towels.

Kamal, a witness, said that Madan Purohit, a security guard, jumped first. However, his legs were on the mattress and his body hit the ground. Both, Surabhi Joshi and Sunil Iyer, employees of JDA Software, hit the mattress but the net gave way under the impact, resulting in fatal injuries.

D Rasheed, deputy director (administration), of the department, said that people who were not trained could not survive the jump.

“One is supposed to hold the body in a particular posture while jumping, or it will lead to severe abrasions and bleeding,” he said. Deputy director (technical) of the department, BK Hamppagol said that the firemen were trying to create rescue passages as the emergency exits were jammed and, hence, they could not have been holding nets and standing on the ground floor.