14 bodies removed: Firemen

Mumbai: In their statement before the NM Joshi Marg police, three Mumbai fire brigade personnel Vishwas Rao, Rupesh Shinde and Arun Dhondu Devale have stated that they extricated 14 persons from the toilet of the 1Above resto pub at Kamala Mills Compound when the fire broke out there on December 2017. But the victims did not survive. The statements of firemen are part of the NM Joshi Marg police’s recent chargesheet in the case, which revealed the fact.

The fire fighters brought the 14 people down from the toilet and rushed them to hospital but the doctors declared them dead before admission. Mr Shinde of Byculla fire brigade and Mr Devale of Dadar fire brigade in their statements have said that fireman Mr Rao had gone upstairs with a water pipeline from a water tanker to extinguish the blaze. Mr Devale followed him but bottles containing alcohol in 1 Above were exploding and hence they found it difficult to enter the premises.

Mr Rao directed Mr Devale to bring one more water pipeline. “I took another water pipeline upstairs and controlled the fire. Other firemen told us that some guests were still stuck on the terrace,” said Mr Devale.

M Shinde’s statement stated that he went along with Mr Rao and Mr Devale on the terrace and started moving ahead by pouring water on fire. On terrace, somebody told them that few people were stuck in the toilet of 1 Above. On this they gave pipeline to leading man Mr Salunkhe to control the fire and they went ahead.

The toilet door was burning from outside After dousing the door flames, the opened the door and found 14 people lying on the floor. Mr Devale put some unconscious person on his shoulder with the help of Mr Shinde and they both went down. The duo informed their seniors about people lying unconscious in the toilet and returned with other crewmembers to rescue the remaining guests. All these 14 unconscious persons were rushed to the hospital but they were declared dead before admission.