A survivor recounts how he and his colleagues managed to save their lives in the Carlton fire
A survivor recounts how he and his colleagues managed to save their lives in the Carlton fire
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At his office on the sixth-floor of Carlton Towers, Richie heard that a fire had broken out due to a short circuit on the fifth-floor. He also heard that the AC ducts were damaged when people tried to douse the fire. "We opened the doors of our office to check what the commotion was about and found the entire corridor covered in smoke. I immediately pulled our security man inside and shut the door."
Mathew noticed that the smoke was nevertheless entering the office from the gap between the front door and the floor. "I raised an alarm, so my colleagues would know how serious the situation was. One of our colleagues, Basavaraj ran towards the stairs in panic. He is serious and is being treated at the ICU of Manipal hospital.
Thirteen colleagues locked themselves in a conference room. There they remained for over an hour till they were rescued. It was tough to remain calm in the circumstances but I had to," said Mathew.
Some broke the windowpanes after people on the ground floor asked them to do so, and they remained continuously in touch with their friends and family on phone. "I kept updating our security manager who is based in Electronics City of the emerging situation."
"I asked people to sit on the floor below the smoke level as we were told to do during fire drills. We used our shirts to blow the smoke out of the rooms. When ropes were lowered, I asked my colleagues to not use them but wait for the fire brigade personnel. I did not want to lose any of my colleagues," said Mathew who fainted while he was rescued and had to be hospitalised.
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