We had just stepped out of class when we heard it; a building on Park Street had caught fire. We rushed to the college roof to look, and there it was in the distance. Thick, black smoke; rising menacingly towards the sky....
Going closer, we could also the see the flames leaping upwards. With a flow came the rumours and then the cameras, and some of the guys rushed out then and there.
I headed out there after class, and the place was as I expected. The fire raging on, with the firefighters doing the best they can with their backdated equipment, people crowding and preventing progress as well as insulting the firefighters for the slow progress, media channels shouting and filming away, regular people shouting and filming away, politicians coming and taking a look for the news channels and what not.
Then I heard that a girl from college has her hostel in a nearby building. We soon found her, safe and away from the inferno. Then we watched the progress some more as more rumours started flowing in about 16 people jumping from the windows and all.
After a while I headed back, and later learned that the rumours were partially true, and people had indeed jumped in an attempt to escape the flames, and people had died in the process, though the number of casualties was less than what I had heard.
Well, this post wasn’t too descriptive. And the reason is, I don’t really feel like describing a burning building in detail. Read about it in tomorrow’s paper if you want. I just wanted to share this.
Peace
I'm following you now :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Will come back later to read this post!
Toodles!
It's terrifying, isn't it? To have to choose between being burnt to death or jumping off to death.
ReplyDelete@Esha
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is. Though there's always that hope in the back of the mind that the fall will be worth it. For some people it was, for others it wasn't.
Ok this sounds insane :|
ReplyDeleteAnd yes the jumping out of the window part is really tragic.
I hope those who made it are alright now.
@Lavender
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the papers in Mumbai are saying, but this is the worst fire disaster in Kolkata's history. The death toll has crossed 30 with bodies of people who couldn't escape being discovered every day. It's turned out to be much much worse than what was thought.
I read about the man who leapt to death... A 150 year old building going up in flames - very tragic indeed.
ReplyDelete@Ms. R
ReplyDeleteYes, and even today the death toll is still rising