Infants put into jute bags for rescue

RANCHI: She was loyal to the last hour. As fire broke out at the Kedarnath Roy and Nirmala Roy Apartments in Plaza Chowk on Monday noon, a housemaid belonging to the family of Vijay Poddar, one of the residents of the building, ensured that her master's newborn was first rescued and then her infant.
Families started running towards balconies for fresh air as thick black smoke started billowing out of the basement and entering their flats at around 12.15 pm.As a team of rescuers reached the top floor of the apartment, they first looked around for children. Rashmi, the maid, immediately asked the family to put Khushi, three months old, into a jute bag and handed her over to rescuers.
Khushi was carefully brought down with the help of a rope and rushed to hospital. Then Rashmi handed over her one-and-half-year-old daughter Shivani Kumari to the rescuers. People who gathered at the site prayed to god as both the infants were brought down by fire-fighters. "I haven't seen such a rescue before. Infants being brought down in jute bags!" said Kishore Agarwal, a resident of Block A of the building.
After rescuing the two infants, Rashmi held on to the rope and herself descended to the third floor. Anu Agarwal, a tenant at the girls' hostel on the first floor, said they were alerted when they saw smoke and heard cries of people from the staircase. Around 12 people were injured as they tried to jump through different floors of the building.
"All the injured are safe. They got hurt while trying to escape. The rescue operation was carried out effectively and within an hour all residents of the building were rescued," said SDO Shekher Jamuar.
Gas cylinders were thrown from different floors into the lawn of the building and window panes were broken for free flow of air to facilitate exit of dense smoke. However, the hydraulic platform of fire brigade could not reach the building because of congestion and narrow space leading to the apartment. Senior district administration officials, including deputy commissioner K K Soan, SDO Shekher Jamuar and police officers, supervised the rescue operation.