BENGALURU: Could the three ill-fated employees of Holisol Logistics Private Limited, who were buried under tonnes of iron racks and material for hours, be rescued had the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) been allowed to take a crack at it?
At least 47 personnel of the NDRF had reached the warehouse in Kadugodi within 15 minutes of being alerted at 1.45pm, about the mishap which occurred at 12.15pm. They reached the spot equipped with cutters, victim-locating cameras and a dog squad — all these could have helped in extricating the three hapless victims who remained trapped until they succumbed to their injuries.
Shockingly, although the NDRF team reached the spot a whole hour and 45 minutes after the mishap had occurred as they were alerted late, they ended up being mere bystanders, with only fire personnel making futile attempts to rescue the three victims — Farooq, Subhash and Jnana Darshan.
An NDRF personnel informed TNIE that they were not allowed to start the rescue attempt. “We were alerted an hour-and-a-half after the incident. Though a team reached the spot in 15 minutes from Mahadevapura Fire Station, another 30 minutes were wasted as fire officials had taken over the situation. The rescue ops could have started early if they had involved us sooner. We are trained to handle these situations effectively and rapidly,” he said.
The Mahadevapura police decided to call NDRF late only because they realised that the fire force was unable to rescue the trapped people. Even three cranes pressed into service failed to budge the metal racks to release the trapped.
It was a major challenge to not only reach the victims but also to identify the precise location under the tonnes of material and metal racks which had buried them. The equipment the NDRF carried could have helped, but they were not allowed in.
However, MN Reddi, DGP, Fire and Emergency Service, said: “NDRF is meant to handle high level disasters; and accidents like these can be handled efficiently by our highly trained professional fire fighter rescuers. I have full faith in our state firemen. Each incident is complex and the situation varies, but our fire personnel did their best.”
