New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI) A day after the Mukherjee Nagar coaching institute fire, harrowing scenes of escape haunt the survivors, flashing by before their eyes the moment they lie down to go to sleep.
Brijesh Kumar, 22, a UPSC aspirant from Bihar, was too traumatised to sleep properly.
“I came here from Bihar in February. I was in the class when the incident happened. I have sinusitis and was not able to breathe properly due to the smoke. I sat on a chair with my face covered. Later I came upon the idea to rush to the terrace to escape the fire. This is how I came out of the building,” said Brijesh, one of the about 300-350 students who were taking a class in the five-storey building which caught fire Thursday.
“My family got to know about the incident and gave me a call. I told them I was fine. I was shivering and could not sleep the whole night,” he said.
Students from the are held a protest till 6 am Friday demanding police to let them inside the building.
Joginder Yadav, another 22-year-old coaching student in Mukherjee Nagar, said the students were demanding to be let inside the building to ensure none of their own was still inside.
“A woman here Thursday evening told us her neighbour in PG had been missing since the incident. We also got to know that the three rooms are still locked,” Yadav said.
Concurring with him, V M Jha, a student from Bihar studying at another coaching centre, wondered if there were no casualties why were police not letting them go inside the building.
“When there was nothing inside the building, then why the authorities stationed 10 to 12 ambulances here in the night? The locked rooms should be opened. A girl who had come from Bihar this week is missing since the incident,” Jha said.
Police at length allowed five people to go inside the building. However, Jha and other students alleged all of them were locals and not students.
A woman, who was present at the spot and refused to give her name, said she was one of the five people who went inside the building.
“The five of us were not known to each other. When we entered the ground floor, we saw burnt electric wire and there was also some smell. There were two locked rooms on the first floor. We went to all floors and saw items strewn about. There is an office of a chartered accountant on the fourth floor which was closed,” she said.
Coaching institutes in Mukherjee Nagar remained shut on Friday. A message circulating on the social media group of the institutes told students the institutes would remain shut till further notice.
Brijesh said he will go back to his hometown if the institute where he studies remains closed for a long period.
Aryan Raj, 22, from Bihar, said the smoke sent a wave of panic among the students who took to breaking the windowpanes to escape.
“My batch was started on June 12 and regular classes commenced on Monday. The class on Thursday started at 11.30 am. After about 45 minutes, there was a power cut for a minute. Moments later, we noticed smoke entering the classroom and informed our teacher about it. Very soon the classroom was filled with smoke and students started breaking the glass windows. Nobody was able to see properly,” Raj recalled.
“Brijesh called me and asked me to come out to the terrace. There were around 50 to 60 students inside the class. I asked them to go to the terrace,” he said.
Raj said he hurt his hand while breaking the glass and was still distressed over the whole episode. “I hear the screams of the students the moment I close my eyes.” Akash, 22, a resident of Burari and one of the rescuers, was hurt in his eye when he entered the building to save his friend.
“I entered the second floor of the building and broke an air conditioner mounted there to help students escape. When I was coming down the stairs, some students came there with fire extinguishers and set them off. I got injured in my eye and my friends took me to the hospital.
“My friend Ajay received some burn injuries and he is undergoing treatment at Hindu Rao Hospital,” said Raj, who was told by a doctor that it would take 15-20 days for his eye to heal.
Akash said most people gathered at the spot chose to make videos and not help in the rescue operation.
A call about the fire was received at 12.27 pm on Thursday and 11 fire tenders were pressed into service. As many as 61 students were taken to different hospitals for treatment.
Out of these, 50 were discharged and the rest were still undergoing treatment, police had earlier said.
Mukherjee Nagar is a coaching hub for government job aspirants. PTI NIT NIT VN VN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
