There was a loud explosion. The scrap godown then went up in bright orange flames, and thick smoke billowed from the cracks and crevices between the GI sheets that served as both walls and roof.
And then, there he was, a man slightly-built, pushing himself through the window, a desperate attempt to escape the inferno in which 11 of his co-workers perished.
New Bhoiguda, where the Shravan Traders godown was, is punctuated with timbre and scrap godowns, and small metal workshops, with splotches of close-knit residential spaces.
Bansi Lal (name changed on request), who is employed at a nearby metal workshop, slept late on Tuesday night. But around 4 a.m., he heard an explosion. He rushed outside and saw the godown in flames.
“One of the workers tried hard to squeeze through the window. It is a miracle how he got out. He then fell and ran. It could have been the shock. We then found him lying dazed near a tea stall and tried to talk to him. He told us that there were 11 others trapped inside,” he said. The survivor was Prem Kumar. He was taken to Gandhi Hospital for treatment.
Hours after firemen fought the flames, and managed to douse them, wisps of smoke continued to billow through the make-shift roof.
Laxmi lives in a cluster of houses diagonally opposite the blackened godown. A power cut that began around 4 a.m., and lasted for several hours, and the wails of sirens alarmed her into waking up. “I went there to see what happened. By then, some people were already there. I saw the boy who jumped out of the window. He was speaking to the others there. He was then taken away to the hospital,” she says.
Later in the day, a phalanx of policemen arrived at the spot and cordoned off the area, clearing it of curious onlookers. A bevy of politicians took stock of the situation, made announcements and interacted with the media.
