Fire at Deepika Padukone's building: Firefighters climb 38 floors to fight blaze

Firefighters were forced to climb 38 floors to battle a massive blaze at a Prabhadevi highrise after the fire brigades muchadmired 90metre snorkel van proved to be of no use on the ground As a result it took five hours to douse the fire which gutted the top three floors of the posh Beau Monde tower home to highprofile citizens like actor Deepika PadukoneThe fire brigade had bought the snorkel in 2015 at a cost of Rs 16 crore specifically to tackle fires at highrises However on Wednesday afternoon when the department got a call about a level three fire at Beau Monde the firefighters discovered they couldnt use the fancy equipmentFirefighters work with only napkins covering their mouths PicsPradeep DhivarWhy it didnt workFor one the snorkel would only go up to the 30th floor whereas the fire had broken out in a duplex on the 32nd and 33rd floors of the B wing A lot of time was lost as fire officers climbed 33 floors plus five storeys reserved for parking Another team tried to douse the fire from the top of the adjacent A wing The compound did not have enough space to operate the snorkel van So the entire exercise of bringing the 90metre snorkel went in vainFire chief saysP Rahangdale chief fire officer CFO of the Mumbai Fire Brigade said It was my professional decision to not deploy the snorkel van Firstly the building is taller than 90 metres Second there was a podium so there is an angle of elevationApart from that as per as my expertise and professional experience there is a limit to firefighting from outside it has to be from the inside We had a successful operation in a difficult situation We have contained the fire right where it had originated We did not allow it to spread itHowever sources said that by the time the fire brigade extinguished the flames the blaze had reached the 31st floor An officer who was part of the operation explained The snorkel was stationed at the podium at the building premises Due to the lack of space and a weak base the snorkel could not be used even once There was a strong chance of a cavein if we had tried it This vehicle cannot be used in such placesThis is not the only point on which the fire brigade seemed unprepared midday accessed a video of the rescue operation in which a couple of firefighters were spotted in the smoking building without masks Instead they had merely tied handkerchiefs around their mouths As a result while no residents came to harm two fire officers were rushed to hospital with breathing problems Their condition is now stableOfficials struggled with intense heat smoke and wind at the top floors What helped was that the buildings internal firefighting equipment was functioning well CFO Rahangdale said This is a lesson to learn As the buildings internal fire installations were working we could operate six to eight jets This helped tremendouslyThe BMC currently has only three firefighting vans that can tackle fires in highrises The van with the tallest ladder has a reach of barely 67 metres while the city has highrises that are nearly four times as tall For instance the 61storey Imperial Towers in Tardeo constructed in 2010 are 254 metres tallA long walkShiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar said Although the fire brigade was on time they did not have the equipment needed to douse the flames on the top floors They worked really hard and walked all the way up to fight the flames When the equipment cannot reach beyond a point why do fire officials approve buildings taller than that I will raise this issue with the BMC commissionerKishori Pednekar Sena corporator said The local security guards initially tried to deal with the situation They were not trained to deal with the fire They alerted the fire department lateAlso ReadPrabhadevi fire Deepika Padukone fellow residents homeless for the nightCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates