West Bengal: Cab driver saves sleeping couple from certain death in burning house

KOLKATA: At 12.30am on Saturday, 34-year-old Tapas Bhnui was driving home through Canal West Road when he noticed a house on fire. Though he had been driving constantly from Bally, where he had dropped off his last passenger, Bhnui stopped to get a sleeping couple, in their 30s, out of the house.
For the past three years, Bhnui has been working as a cab driver who also drops off employees of a software firm based out of Rajarhat’s Eco Space.“I noticed the flames while driving towards my home in Salt Lake’s BB Block. I immediately parked the car at a safe distance from the house and returned to the spot. The flames were very intense and the cold had driven everybody inside. There was no one else around to help,” he said.
“I noticed that the house was locked from inside and immediately realized that there could be people trapped by the flames. I started knocking on the door hard and screamed for help. My cries alerted a few people from the neighbourhood, who then joined me in trying to rouse the inhabitants of the burning house. Our efforts managed to wake the house owners up and they were brought out to safety. We then poured several buckets of water on the flames and I called the fire brigade,” Bhnui said.
Suprovat Maity, 38, and his wife Mamata, 34, were fast asleep when they heard loud knocks on the door. “We were slow to react, but once they started loudly banging on the door, I opened it. By then, Tapas babu and a few others were working to bring the blaze under control,” Suprovat said.
After bringing his wife out of the room, Suprovat joined Bhnui and the others to douse the flames. Later, he smothered the source of the fire with his own blanket. The group took almost an hour and a half to extinguish the flames.
Fire brigade personnel visited the spot after Bhnui’s call. After inspecting the shop adjacent to the Maity home, their room and the electric meter box, they declared the place safe. The cause of the fire remained unidentified. Personnel from Ultadanga police station also visited the place.
“He is God to us. A lot of other cars might have passed the same spot before him, but no one dared to risk themselves. Tapas babu came at the right time, woke us up and helped douse the fire. The houses here are small and the top portions are covered with tarpaulin sheets. The flame could have spread and brought down all the neighbouring houses and cost a lot of lives. I will be indebted to him for saving my family, my house, my shop and the neighbours,” added Suprovat, who suffered injuries to his hand, feet and face from the fire.
“It was my duty as a fellow human to help someone in danger,” Bhnui said. On Saturday, he called on the couple again to enquire about their well-being.