Lucky escape for some workers at fire-hit Serum building

Some contractual workers had alucky escape as they ran to safety in time when a fire brokeout in an under-construction building at the Serum Instituteof India (SII) premises here on Thursday afternoon.

Avinash Kumar, one of the contractual labourersworking in the five-storey building at the time of theincident, said moment the fire broke out he along with someothers quickly ran away and saved their lives.

''Moment we saw smoke emanating from somewhere in thebuilding, we escaped from the floor where we were working,''said Kumar.

However, all were not so lucky as charred bodies offive labourers were later recovered from the fifth floor ofthe structure by fire brigade personnel at the SII premises inthe Manjari area.

''Two of our colleagues - Bipin Kumar and Rama Shankar- could not come out in time and got trapped inside one of thefloors (the fire affected 4th & 5th floors),'' said AvinashKumar.

Another worker, Sudhanshu Kumar, said the fire brokeout at around 2.15 pm.

''Moment the fire broke out, we ran towards safety.

However, some of our colleagues got trapped in the fire,''Sudhanshu Kumar added.

''There were 200 to 300 workers in the building andthey were engaged in insulation, sliding and other buildingworks,'' he said.

Each level of the structure consists of two floors,Sudhanshu Kumar added.

''Some workers jumped from one floor to another to savetheir lives,''other,'' he said.

Asked how the blaze started, Sudhanshu Kumar said hejust heard shots about fire breaking out.

''We just ran away to save our lives. However, two ofour colleagues could not come out in time,'' he added.

Meanwhile, Chetan Tupe, NCP MLA from Hadapsar, whichcovers the area where the incident took place, gave the namesof the deceased as Rama Shankar Harijan, Bipin Saroj, SushilKumar Pandey, Mahendra Ingale and Pratik Pashte.

When contacted, Namrata Patil, Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Zone 5), said the process of identifying the victimswas still going on.

''We have registered an accidental fire case andinvestigation was going on,'' she added.