MUMBAI: A brave 10-year-old girl applied her school lessons and saved 16 lives even as the fire at Crystal Towers in the Parel area of Central Mumbai killed four and injured another 16 people on Wednesday.
Zen Sadavarte, who is a class-3 student, was sleeping when her mother spotted the smoke at around 8 am. Zen was trapped on the 12th floor of the 16-storied-building where the fire had started. However, without getting deterred Zen showed presence of mind and applied the safety tips taught to her in the school to save the lives of her family members and neighbours.
Upon spotting fire, as everybody rushed out for safety, an asthmatic girl was feeling breathless. Upon hearing her mother cry Zen quickly took pieces of cloth from her house, wet them and urged her family and neighbours to cover their noses with them and breathe through it.
"I tore a cloth into a size that of handkerchief, then I added water into it. So when you breathe through it, you get purified air in the place of carbon. So that purified air got me to tell everyone to insist everyone to use it. And so, no one suffocates or be ill. I told them to use my air purifier. They just had to put it on their mouth and nose and breathe normally," Zen said.
Fire officers, who doused off the fire after two hours, praised the presence of mind of the little girl. It is one of the first things anyone in a fire is supposed to do, it is remarkable indeed that a 10-year-old girl remembered this fact and urged the 17 people around her to follow it, which kept them safe till they were rescued, the fire officers added.
"Electrical wiring in the duct area of the building caused the fire to start on the 12th floor. There were fire extinguishers but they were not operational. Because of the smoke and heat on the 12th floor, the people on upper floors were also trapped. About 30 Stranded peoples were rescued with the help of special appliances and building stairway by firemen," said the fire officers.
"The building is declared unsafe and power and water supply is stopped now. Evacuation process is complete. A thorough investigation will be conducted into the incident," said chief fire officer P S Rahangadale. "Cause of the fire will be under investigation. However, it has been observed that the fire fighting system of the tower was not in working condition and electric duct is not sealed at each floor level," he added.
Crystal Tower is located near Hindmata Cinema in Parel area of Central Mumbai and has over 100 residents. Four residents of the building including an elderly woman identified as Subhadha Shelke (62) died due to suffocation while 16 others, among them, are ten men and six women, too suffered suffocation and have been admitted to the EKM hospital, fire officers said.