Mumbai: Cancer survivor cop save residents trapped in building fire
India Today
A cancer survivor police officer rescued the lives of people who were stuck in a building after a fire broke out on the 17th floor.
A cancer survivor police officer Sandeep Daware rescued the residents of Khan Estate Society in Jogeshwari West who were trapped in their flats after a fire broke out on the 17th floor. He also ensured that the roads near the society were cleared of vehicles so that fire brigade vehicles got easy access.
Daware is attached to the Oshiwara police station and is a cancer survivor who has undergone two surgeries and 50+ chemotherapy sessions in the past four years and received information about the fire at the 21-storey building on SV Road.
At the time of the incident, he was driving a police vehicle with Inspector Raghunath Kadam, around 7:10 pm, on Tuesday.
They reached the spot in two minutes and Daware climbed the stairs to the 17th floor without any safety equipment to rescue those trapped.
He told mid-day, “After reaching the spot, I told PI Kadam that I was going to rescue the people from the 17th to 21st floors. I told the society chairman, who was on the ground floor, to clear out the vehicles parked in the vicinity and disconnect the power supply to the building. I went to the 17th floor, took water from the residents there and with their help brought the fire under control. Then I went to the upper floors and brought all the residents to the ground floor with the help of mobile flashlights.”
“PI Kadam had informed the fire brigade and also sought police back-up, but as they would have taken around 15 minutes to arrive, I decided to rescue as many people as I could,” the police explained. The Fire Brigade reached the spot around 7.30 pm and checked the spot of the fire.
When mid-day asked Daware if he faced difficulty while climbing the stairs given his health condition, he said, “It was very difficult for the people who were trapped. When I went to the 17th floor I was not thinking about cancer. Luckily, there were no casualties and the fire was also extinguished easily.”