Six of a family, including a six-month-old baby, had a narrow escape from a fire that broke out in their flat on Tuesday evening in Kalyan after an alert ex-Force One officer jumped into the balcony to save them.
Deepak Gharat, currently a police Nayak with Mumbai police, was returning home after picking his son from school when he saw the blaze on the first floor of the residential building.
“I asked my son to wait by the two-wheeler and rushed to the spot. Luckily there was painting work going on in the building. I used the bamboo sticks to climb into the flat’s balcony and rescued one by one. Locals too joined me in the effort. Apart from the infant, there were two elderly people and other adults,” 37-year-old Gharat said.
Soon, the fire brigade from the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) reached the spot and doused the blaze. Two elderly women, identified as Sukhvindar Kaur, 72, and Kalvandar Kaur, 52, suffered burns and were taken to a hospital by locals.
Gurupal Singh Sansova, 20, one of the family members, said, “My grandmother and aunt have suffered burns. However, they are safe as they got help on time. My sister and her baby were also fine. There was some gas leak which led to the fire. I am grateful to him [Gharat] for saving us.”
Locals were clueless of how to use the fire extinguishers available in the building, Gharat said.
“I explained to them how to use it. All the members had run towards the balcony while the two women who suffered burns were inside. I did not get into the room as it was a blanket of thick smoke. I asked them to step on my shoulder and helped them land on the bamboo and get down. There were clothes kept for drying in the balcony which I asked the injured women to cover themselves up,” he said, adding the exercise took nearly 20 minutes.
As per KDMC fire officials, it is suspected that the blaze was caused by a leak in gas cylinder.
“We are investigating to find out the actual reason. No casualty has been reported in the incident,” Namdeo Chaudhari, chief fire officer, KDMC, said.
Gharat was a Force One officer with the Maharashtra police from 2009 to 2016. He lives in a nearby building.
