Fire tragedy survivor alleges ‘botched’ rescue operation

Indore: A survivor of Brijeshwari Annexe fire tragedy on Thursday claimed that it was an electric pole erected next to the house from where the fire started and not EV charging plug that led to the incident. He also refuted his house had any electronic lock and termed the fire brigade's rescue efforts a ‘botched-up operation.'Saurabh Pugalia, the eldest son of the deceased businessman Manoj Pugalia, told chief minister Mohan Yadav, during his visit to offer condolences to survivors at Zanjeerwala Square on Thursday, that administrative negligence and not the technology had resulted in the death of eight members of the family.Contradicting initial police theories, Saurabh said that the family's EV was not on charge at the time of the incident. He pointed toward an electricity pole erected immediately next to the house. "The fire started at the pole. You can see in the viral videos that the short circuit happened there. The current then travelled to the car parked beneath it," he explained. "There was knee-deep water inside the house from firefighting efforts, and electricity department failed to cut power. I suspect the current in the water claimed lives. Also, there is no electronic lock in the house; every door is operated with a physical key," he said.Additional DCP Amrendra Singh said that while there was no digital lock, the house used multi-lever deadlocks. These high-security manual locks require multiple key rotations and significant effort to align the levers, which may have made them nearly impossible to open quickly in a smoke-filled, panicked environment.He added that while the family pointed towards infrastructure failure (electric pole), forensic teams are still analysing the charred remains of the vehicle and the household electrical circuit. "There were also reports of Electric Vehicles catching fire when they were not on charge, either while running or parked. We are working to explore all the angles, including what the family members said, to establish the exact cause of the fire," Singh said.Saurabh claimed that despite repeated calls to emergency numbers 112 and 100, there was no immediate response. "The first fire brigade arrived nearly 90 minutes late and was only half-filled with water. A second water tanker entered the wrong street and missed the location entirely, losing another 30 minutes," Saurabh alleged.Refuting these charges, SI Sushil Dubey of Fire Brigade told TOI, "We received the call at 4:01 am and our first fire tender reached by 4:19 am. While municipal water tankers were slightly delayed, the fire brigade was not late. These allegations are baseless."Amid all the gloom, there was a small relief for the family as Harshit Pugalia (25) was discharged from CHL Care Hospital on Thursday.Harshit was admitted with dangerously low oxygen levels (84%) and high carboxyhaemoglobin due to inhaling toxic gases. Under the care of doctors, he was treated with oxygen therapy and nebulisation. Doctors have advised him to continue medication and seek psychological counselling to cope with the trauma."The CM assured that the high-level team will investigate every aspect—from the fire brigade's response time to the technical cause of the fire," Saurabh said. "I want nothing now; I have lost my entire world," Saurabh told TOI. The family on Thursday went to Khedighat on the Narmada River's bank to perform the rituals of ash immersion.