Victims struggled to locate exit, had to look for help to reach hospital - Hindustan Times
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Victims struggled to locate exit, had to look for help to reach hospital

Hindustan Times, Gurugram | ByPavneet Singh Chadha
May 20, 2019 05:55 AM IST

Looking at three of his colleagues on adjacent beds, Kamlesh rued his fate, saying that in over 13 years of working in printing and allied jobs, he had never seen such a mishap.

Lying in a bed in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a private hospital in Sector 10, Kamlesh, 35, both of whose arms were burnt in the fire, said that he and his fellow workers struggled to locate the exit to escape as fire engulfed the basement.

A view of the aftermath of a fire at the basement of a print company, at Khandsa, sector 37, in Gurugram(Yogendra Kumar/Hindustan Times)
A view of the aftermath of a fire at the basement of a print company, at Khandsa, sector 37, in Gurugram(Yogendra Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Kamlesh, of Mirzapur, said they were about to close the shop and were packing up for the day when the incident took place.

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“I think it must have been around 2.45am. Normally, we shut shop at 3am, and were just wrapping up for the day, when suddenly a tubelight in the basement burst. The power went out and it became dark. I saw some flames coming from the rear of the basement. We had locked the rear exit and tried running towards the front exit, but the flames were too high. I made a beeline for the door and, in the process, burnt both my arms,” Kamlesh said.

Looking at three of his colleagues on adjacent beds, Kamlesh rued his fate, saying that in over 13 years of working in printing and allied jobs, he had never seen such a mishap.

Santosh, with his both his arms and face burnt and heavily bandaged, spoke with a lot of difficulty.

“I heard a blast and saw a cloud of smoke, before feeling my skin burning from the flames. It was chaos. I felt nauseous and almost fell unconscious. I do not remember much post that,”
Santosh said.

Kamlesh said after rushing out of the basement, they looked around for help in getting to a hospital.

“Since everyone in the area was asleep, we were yelling and asking for help. A tempo driver, who happened to be passing by, dropped us in the vicinity of a private hospital in Sector 10. From there, we walked at least 100 metres with burn injuries and asked for medical treatment,” Kamlesh said.

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