JOIN USRescuers looking for labourers trapped in the debris of the apartment building that collapsed in Someshwara Nagar here on Monday have spotted two bodies so far even as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said it would demolish the apartment building.
K L Sudheer, IGP, Fire and Emergency Services, said that bringing out the bodies from under the debris was very difficult. They were trying to drill a tunnel near the toilet in the ground floor where a labourer, Paswan, is feared to have been trapped.
Rescuers tried to call him up. The mobile phone did ring but the call was not answered, raising fears of Paswan’s death. With the help of the ringing phone, rescuers zeroed in on the place where Paswan was feared trapped, and drilled a tunnel to get there from above. The exercise paid off and Paswan was spotted. Another body was spotted on the exit route of the building.
Meanwhile, BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said that the building would eventually be demolished. At present, the building was very unstable and impossible to be restored, experts said.
The six floors above have leaned towards the north, touching the ‘B’ block of the pavement complex for support. If not for this, the entire building would have collapsed like a pack of cards.
The demolition, however, had been withheld, with the hope that those trapped under the debris may be alive. K U Ramesh, Chief Fire Officer, said his rescue team was not responsible for the building’s inevitable demolition.
Rescuers have also been drilling holes in the debris, searching for artificial air spaces below. But it was becoming dangerous as, each time they start drilling holes, a cracking sound emanates from under the debris, suggesting that the building may collapse further.
Markandeya, a senior fire officer, said that rescue workers first tried to stabilise the building. They put up steel beams between the two apartment blocks and prevented the one which had caved in from toppling over the other. The gap between the two blocks is less than six feet.
Initially, some firemen went to the cellar of the building and tried to cut open the walls below. But the moment they started the work, the building developed further cracks. The rescuers then pulled out, fearing the building might collapse on them.
Sudheer said that the debris was so crammed below that the possibility of an artificial air space was very low and thus the survival of those trapped was also minimal.