NEW DELHI: “Traumatised” by the series of events in the morning, when his team rescued more than 30 people from a burning building, the Station Fire Officer can’t stop thinking about the bodies he recovered—of a six-year-old boy who died due to asphyxiation, and of an unidentified man whose body was completely charred.
Tara Chand, 59, was disheartened by the death of six persons, even though he made all possible efforts to save those in the building and put his own life at risk by entering the building without an oxygen mask.
He was in tears when he narrated the entire episode. “First we struggled to take our vans inside the street as it was extremely congested. A local took me to the spot on his scooter. I have never seen such a massive fire in my 38 years of service at the DFS,” he said, adding, “It left me open-mouthed. We somehow managed to get our vans inside the lane with the help of the locals.”
“We cooled down the ground floor, from where the fire had spread,” he explained.
After those on the first floor managed to escape, Chand said, “we struggled to reach the upper floors with the 40-foot ladder. We put it on the van... reached that floor, and entered without masks to save time”.
“One cylinder can provide you oxygen for an hour and a half. Once you take it off, you struggle even more and there is a huge hassle with first putting it on and later taking it off during operations,” he explained.
The fire office sent eight tenders to the spot.
The team made announcements, reassuring the residents that they would be safe and shouldn’t jump in panic.
“We had to break down a few walls as the entrances were locked and burning. Locals helped us do that and we were able to rescue many,” said the man. “I am unable to get over the trauma of seeing a completely burnt body,” he said with teary eyes.