Grief-stricken neighbours feel human lives should have survived

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Dana Bazaar Lane in Cantonment is home to the business fraternity running grocery and other businesses. The neighbours, though were not directly attached to the new tenants, but were grief-struck by the accident, and with a heavy voice they said that human lives should have survived. Meanwhile, the residents of different localities in the Cantonment also said that the sudden buzzing of beacons of ambulances and fire tenders forced them to wake up and made them anxious about the development.

The proverbial saying that 'man is unaware of what fate has in store for him'. It is learnt that Waseem and Sohail shifted with their families temporarily. They were staying on a lease basis (Rahen).

Sachin Dubey, an IT engineer youth staying exactly in the neighbourhood of Aslam Shaikh, said, “ The MSEDCL staff reached the spot on alert and as a safety measure they disconnected the power supply of the building as well ours also. The heat caused by fire flames was unbearable. Hence I immediately took my oldage parents out of the house and made them sit at a distance away for safety. Meanwhile, the alert youths tore out the cloth partition between our terraces to evacuate the couple living on the terrace floor. They were helped in jumping on our terrace and then went down our stairs safely and reunited with the survivors."

A businessman, staying at a distance away from the building, Pawan Pandey said, “The firefighters reached the spot and got active immediately. They tried to remove the shutter by hammering, later on, they used a cutter to cut the shutter and then blew water cannons to douse the wildfire in the shop. The material loss could be recovered in life, but the precious human lives should have been survived.”

Gaurav Badjate, another youth staying in front of the building, said, “ We all experienced the heat of the fire. The alert youths made the phone call to the Fire Brigade. Within 15 minutes the fire got wild and engulfed the whole shop and climbed up the building. The textile cloth bundles, furniture, sewing machines, and other machines on the ground floor turned into ashes within a few minutes."

Call from England

A businessman Satish Agrawal stays on the right side of Aslam Shaikh. His wife returned from her native village at 1.30 am. Aslam and his two sons were standing outside their shop after closing the shop at 2 am. Agrawal and Aslam then had a conversation. When he learned about the incident, he rushed and attracted the youth and neighbours. Agrawal's one daughter stays in England. She came to know about the fire incident at 6 am. She immediately made a call to her father and inquired about his whereabouts. However, she got sad upon learning about the sudden death of the family in the neighbourhood.

Had surgery 15 days ago

Meanwhile, a conversation was overheard saying "The Aslam and his family had a tough time while coming out of the building. A fortnight ago, Aslam and his wife met with a minor accident on Beed Bypass. His wife had sustained a fracture in her leg in the accident and a rod was inserted after surgery a few days ago. Hence she had to face hardship while coming down through a ladder."