It was not fire, but thick, heavy smoke and the consequent panic that claimed nine lives on Tuesday at Carlton Towers on Old Airport Road.The tragedy could have been averted if not for the panic. Nor would it have been so bad had some fire fighters not coaxed people standing near windows to jump from the heights.
It was only when smoke engulfed the top floors of the seven-storey building that people working there were alerted. The fire had started on the second floor much earlier, but office employees on the seventh floor were oblivious of it. But passers-by below and residents of neighbouring buildings had noticed the smoke much, much earlier.
Monty Cooper, a resident of Diamond District, opposite Carlton Towers, said, “I noticed smoke billow out from the top floor around 3 pm.” With people choking, most of them began breaking window panes.
Yasmeen and Rekha, who worked in the same building, said, “We heard the fire alarm and ran out. However, the smoke grew very thick too soon which left us without an idea about where the staircase was.”
But they were on the first floor — a floor below the one where the fire started.
Panic among the trapped people on the upper floors increased when people started screaming for help and leaning out of the windows even as a few jumped from the heights.
Around 4.40 pm, a set of fire fighters spread out what seemed like
nets.
This was padded with cloth, footmats, and the like. Witnesses said once these so-called nets were held tightly by the firemen below, they asked the trapped people to jump one at a time.
But unfortunately, none of those who jumped made it safely. Witnesses close to the site said that the height from where they jumped as well as their weight was too much.
“It was panic that caused the trouble. People, who are in a critical condition (they were later declared brought dead by the hospital authorities) are the ones, who jumped from the sixth and seventh floors and sustained multiple injuries,” said DGP, fire and emergency services, Jija Hari Singh.
“They didn’t have to jump; they did not have to break the glasses. They could have just used the stairs. They were so used to the elevators that it did not occur to them that they could use the stairs. People, who were trapped in the building were not aware of the existence and location of the staircase,” deputy director (technical), fire and emergency services, BK Hamppagol, told DNA.
Yudhishtira Attiray, an employee of ASAP software solutions, was one of the many who were rescued from the 6th floor of the building.
“We were 20 of us working the office. Suddenly thick smoke began entering the room and our visibility was reduced to zero in no time. We were stuck inside the office room for over an hour, we had to break the window to let the smoke out. We could not get out of the place for over an hour, and also we were finding it difficult to breathe. So we decided to get out through the window, but fire fighters down shouted out asking us to use the staircase. While all these stunts were going on some rescue officials entered our premises and took us out to safety,” he said.
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