SDRF, Police and Fire Department personnel fight against odds to save victims, extricate bodies at Simhachalam temple

SDRF, Police and Fire Department personnel fight against odds to save victims, extricate bodies at Simhachalam temple

The death of seven devotees and injuries to two others during the annual Chandanotsavam of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Simhachalam, here, on Wednesday, has no precedent in the history of the ancient temple. The wall, which collapsed following rain and gales was a new one.

Interestingly, the rock walls and pillars of the temple, constructed with conventional materials more than 900 years ago, have withstood the vagaries of weather, except for some of the ancient roofs, developing leaks a few decades ago.

While the Opposition leaders went on the offensive alleging negligence on the part of the government in ensuring quality of the construction work, which led to the wall collapse and death of devotees, the government is on to the defensive blaming the rain and gales for the wall collapse and unfortunate death of devotees.

Members of the A.P. State Disaster Response Force (AP SDRF), Police and the Fire Department personnel put their lives at risk in reaching out to the victims, who were trapped under the debris of the fallen wall. The wall, which was on a higher plane, fell on the ₹300 queue line, which was at a lower height on the hill slope.

Members of the SDRF 16 Bn, Visakhapatnam, spared no efforts in reaching out to the victims in spite of the threat of partially collapsed tin roof and the metal poles, supporting them, lying in a dangerous position. As the incident occurred in the early hours, it was still dark. Luckily, there were floodlights arranged at various places in view of the festival. Though one wire was said to have snapped resulting in power supply passing through one of the iron poles, an electrician was immediately deployed to rectify the problem.

“We have managed to rescue two injured persons from the debris. They were sent to various hospitals, and we retrieved seven bodies from the rubble in our operation, which lasted for nearly two-and-a-half hours,” T. Ramakrishna, RI of SDRF told The Hindu.

“We were initially posted at temple pushkarini (tank), which is at the foothill, as officials anticipated that a number of devotees would have a dip there before having darshan in the early hours. However, we were asked to come to the hilltop as most of the devotees were directly going to the hilltop,” said Ramana, one of the team members of SDRF 16 Bn.