'Thank God, it was morning'

Had the tragedy struck at night, dozens would have been buried alive

Labourers who managed to escape to safety when the under-construction apartment building collapsed in Someshwara Nagar here on Monday said the saving grace was that the tragedy had struck in the morning.

“Thank God, it was morning,” Basavaraj, one of the labourers, said. “Had the tragedy struck at night, dozens of us would have been buried alive.”

Dozens of labourers would take shelter in the building at night. “All labourers — about a hundred — sleep on the ground floor at night. I am thankful to God that the incident did not occur at night. Since we were all awake when the tragedy struck, we ran to safety. Imagine if the building had collapsed when we were fast asleep,” Basavaraj told Deccan Herald.

Not everyone, however, was lucky. Among them is Nagamma who is trapped in the debris and feared dead. Her younger son, Ravi who is barely ten years old, was found crying for her at the construction site.

Nagamma’s nephew Prabhu recounted how the building collapsed. First, there was a loud thud. “I was listening to music on the mobile phone while having breakfast on the first floor.

It was about 9.45 am when I heard a sound similar to an aeroplane’s flight above the building,” Prabhu recalled. “The building suddenly began swaying. I threw the plate and ran for my life. Just as I stepped out of the building, the top floors crashed before my eyes.”

According to Prabhu, Nagamma had gone to the ground floor to get a spade whereas the other 40-odd labourers were on the first floor, getting ready for the day’s work. The labourers hail from Hosur village in Manvi taluk of Raichur district, Prabhu added.

Headcount

Another labourer who is feared dead in the debris is Paswan, who hails from Bihar. Babloo Sarkar, another labourer, said Paswan was using the toilet in the ground floor when the incident occurred.

The labourers realised that he was missing after they did a headcount once everyone ran out of the building, Sarkar said. Apart from the two people feared dead, as many as ten men have been injured, but none seriously.

Dr V L Sateesh, Medical Superintendent at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), told this newspaper that eight injured labourers were brought to the hospital around 10.30 am. They were: Lakshman Pasman, 45, Sushanth Burman,18, Sanjay,17, Amulu Burman,18, Lal Kumar,18, Gopal Burman,19, Gouraingo Burman,18, and Mouni Mohanto,20.

Almost all suffered mild head injuries and two fractured their limbs. An initial investigation was conducted and the CT scan was also carried out. After it was confirmed that the injuries were not serious, the labourers were referred to general hospitals, Dr Sateesh added.

Other labourers, Manas Burman, 20, and Prateep Burman, 24, were treated at a private nursing home and discharged later.

Manas Burman said that he had arrived in the City only two months ago and was working at the construction site for the past two weeks.

A piece of concrete fell on his head when he was working on the second floor before the building collapsed. He heard the noise of a crash. “I immediately climbed down the steps and sprinted out of the building,” he said.

The Burmans’ is a large family of 15 members from Cooch Behar district in West Bengal. Six of them have been injured in the accident.

Khitish Burman, the eldest of them, thanked the family’s lady luck that none of its members suffered a life-threatening injury.