Horror at Carlton: Victims had no option but to jump

A day after fire snuffed out nine lives, shocking details are emerging about the lack of safety measures at Carlton Towers.

DNA has learnt that the emergency exits in the building had metal grills on them which trapped people in their offices on the sixth and seventh floors.

Also, for lack of instructions, none of the trapped crawled on the floor to escape breathing in smoke. Neither did they use wet tissue papers or napkins (available in abundance in the offices, according to survivors) to minimise smoke impact.

Instead, they all gathered at windows for fresh air. Desperation forced at least three of them to jump to their death, while two slipped and fell. Four others died of asphyxiation.

Senior fire officials admitted the emergency exits were blocked by metal grills, which they cut to rescue trapped people.

The officials agreed that had the grills not been in place, the deaths could have been prevented.

“Safety norms do not permit such grills. It is wrong to block emergency exits. We had to cut the grills to vacate the building,” PS Sandhu, inspector general-cum-additional director general, Karnataka state fire and emergency services, said.

The grills, however, were not the only reason for the deaths.

Alleged wrong guidance by firemen also played its part.

Eyewitnesses told DNA firemen asked at least three people trapped near a broken window on the seventh floor to jump into a ‘safety’ net they held below.

Even a firefighter admitted a few of his colleagues held a net and asked people to jump.

“Three firemen did ask three people to jump. The men were waving and signalling to them, assuring they would land safely. But the makeshift net was not strong enough and they hit the ground,” he said.

G Ravindran, who was on one of the lower floors, said he saw fire and emergency personnel screaming at three people above, asking them to jump.

“The three jumped one after the other on the instructions of the firemen,” he said.

Another witness, Kamal, who works at a nearby grocery shop on Old Airport Road, narrated how the three, later identified as Madan Purohit, a security guard, Surabhi Joshi, a business development manager with JDA Software, and Sunil Iyer, sales manager, JDA Software, jumped hoping to be saved, but missed the net or hit the ground right through it.

Jija Madhavan Hari Singh, director general of police, fire and emergency services department, home guards and civil defence, however, denied that fire personnel forced people to jump. She said the three may have jumped out of panic.

Singh said people may have mistaken firemen for policemen (they have similar uniforms). “We do not even have proper nets to ask people to jump,” she said.

Benzi Kumari, an asthma patient who was gasping for breath, slipped and fell from a seventh-floor window, while Fayyaz Pasha lost his grip trying to slide down a hosepipe.

D Rasheed, deputy director (administration), Karnataka state fire and emergency services, said excess intake of smoke may have confused those who fell to their death.

Excess carbon monoxide inhalation momentarily cuts oxygen supply to the brain and one loses sense of direction, power of rational thinking, he said.