Currey Road high-rise fire: Guard loses life alerting residents

Arun Tiwari (above and inset) struggling to maintain his grip. Pic/PTI

A security guard dangling from the 19th floor of a fire-hit tower for a few minutes before crashing to the ground became the defining visual of Friday's blaze at One Avighna Park, Currey Road. Arun Tiwari, 30, had rushed to a flat to alert its residents after noticing plumes of black smoke rising from there. While the residents scurried down to safety, Tiwari got caught and lost his life.

The fire brigade received a call at 11.51 am about flames leaping from a flat in the B wing of the 61-storey, upscale housing complex. Avighna Park has 300 apartments though most of them are unoccupied. Authorities said a few families have started living there in the past few months. Most of the luxurious flats are 3 BHK, 4 BHK and 5 BHKs.

Smoke billows out of the 19th floor flat. Pics/Bipin Kokate

Before fire officials reached the scene of the blaze, Tiwari, his colleagues and other residents had begun the rescue.

"One of the security guards of the building, Arun Tiwari, rushed to the upper floors to alert the residents. Maybe he was trapped in smoke and couldn't find a way. So he came to the balcony to save himself from suffocation and fire. He kept hanging to the railing of the balcony on the 19th floor but lost his grip. He fell to the ground and was rushed to the civic-run KEM hospital," said a fire official present on the ground. Dr Parvin Bangar, deputy dean of KEM, said the person was declared dead.

Arun Tiwari is being taken to hospital

The fire started in flat number 1902 of B-wing. A family of four came to live there just 20 days ago. The man went to work in the morning. His wife and two children were inside when the fire broke out. They safely reached the ground level, said officials.

"The flat was fully furnished and that's why the fire spread rapidly. There wasn't anyone in the upper flat on the 20th floor. The flat was vacant without any furniture. Otherwise the fire would have spread even more rapidly," said Rajendra Choudhari, deputy chief fire officer.

Firefighters at the scene of the accident at Currey Road. Pic/Bipin Kokate

"We were working in flat number 1904 on the same floor. After learning about the, we rushed down through the staircase as the lift was shut," said Neeraj Kumar, a labourer.

A resident being shifted to safety. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Mangilal Jain, who lives on the 20th floor of the same wing, said, "We have been staying here since the last year. As smoke and flames reached our floor, we immediately left our home and went downstairs by the staircase."

Mangilal Jain lives a floor above the flat where the fire broke out (right) Rakesh Mahato, a house help who works on the 19th floor

Rakesh Mahato, a house help on the 19th floor, said, "I was working in an adjacent flat. All the members of my family and I rushed to the ground."

The fire brigade first declared the incident a Level-3 fire before upgrading it to Level-4 - on the scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is considered a brigade call or deadliest. They pressed 14 fire engines, 9 jumbo tankers along with a 90-metre snorkel, their tallest weapon, into service.

61
No. of floors in the high-rise

90-metre aerial platform used

Fire officials said they rescued 16 people from the staircase. Rajendra Choudhari, deputy chief fire officer, told mid-day, "The fire was doused and cooling operation is going on. The evacuation and search operation has concluded. No one is inside and everyone is rescued. We used a 90-metre snorkel to douse the fire from outside." The snorkel is one of the tallest firefighting apparatus in the world and can reach up to 30 metres. Commissioned in 2015, the snorkel has been used in a handful of operations.