Meet the heroes of Delhi Mundka fire incident, saved dozens of lives risking their own

Delhi Mundka fire incident: Even in a time of adversity, these heroes saved dozens of lives while risking their own.

Days after a massive fire at a four-storey building in West Delhi’s Mundka killed 27 people, stories of valour of some people have unraveled. These heroes saved dozens of lives before their own, putting themselves at grave risk.

Aaj Tak/GNT and India Today TV interacted with three people who were present on the spot. They were eyewitnesses to the accident and showed exemplary courage to save many innocent lives.

Fifty-two-year-old Mamta Devi had begun working in the factory eight days ago. Her husband is disabled and she is the only earning member in her house. She has two children of her own. Mamta said when the fire started there was chaos everywhere and people were running helter skelter to save their lives. Suddenly, the heat in the room went up a few notches, many people fainted.

But soon a crane came near that window and broke the glass window. Mamta said she thought it necessary to save the lives of the small girls before saving her own. She brought those girls down before the rope and made sure that there were no other girls left behind before deciding of her own safety. She suffered serious injuries to her arms and legs. She said that despite adversity, she kept thinking of her family and jumped out of the window for her safety.

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Avinash, 27, who had been working in the factory for the last one year, broke the glass window and helped the women and children on board the crane to safety. He made sure no one was left behind, then he got down himself. Avinash said there was a meeting on the second floor in which about 70 to 80 people were participating. He said the room suddenly heated up, an employee, who came upstairs from a floor below, opened the door and fainted. No body figured out what was going on, but as the heat increased, there was smoke all around. It was then that Avinash and his companions tried to break the window glass but every time their attempts were unsuccessful.

Avinash said for about half an hour they tried to break the glass using tables, chairs and other sharp objects. After laboriously trying, the glass broke and he let the women and children board the crane first. He said all the women were repeatedly requesting him to let them go first, as they have children waiting for them at home, and that they were the only earning members. Hearing their pleas, Avinash first helped them down and saved their lives. Avinash said in such a situation, he was only thinking of saving all those trapped women and children at the very earliest by whatever means.