Delhi coaching centre flooding: With floating furniture & bookshelves, rescue efforts were fraught with danger | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: It was a race against time for around 100 rescuers comprising the fire brigade, NDRF and police on Saturday evening. As the basement filled within 5-10 minutes, it posed an immediate drowning risk.
While several lives were saved using ropes and other materials, the search for the three missing students became a challenge in such a cramped space.NDRF officials said the water was more than 12 feet high, necessitating the use of four divers for the search.
The main issue they faced was floating furniture and heavy bookshelves that had fallen into the water, hindering the rescue operation. Firefighters claimed the basement was divided into cabins, leading them to believe the girls were trapped in a maze-like situation and unable to find an escape route.
Speaking to TOI, a fire official said this was the first time they had encountered such a predicament, necessitating the formation of multiple teams on site.
“There were numerous messages circulating about the number of people trapped. Our paramount priority was to remove the water to facilitate a rescue operation. We deployed five pumps, but the topography of the area caused the pumped-out water to seep back,” he said, adding that the pumping out of water took more time.
The second major issue was that the water was muddy, making the place slippery. The library area was filled with large racks submerged in the water. An NDRF official said that they deployed four divers, and in the first attempt, they retrieved one body. After some time, a second body was fished out.
“The search operation was fraught with danger as furniture was floating, hindering a smooth operation. Additionally, we faced another issue: the divers risked getting stuck in the racks lying beneath the water,” the official said. Also, there was poor lighting, which made the rescue more difficult. The NDRF team also had to break glass-like shelves to conduct the rescue operation.
A fire department spokesperson said the basement consisted of numerous compartments, leading them to believe that the two individuals were ensnared in a predicament wherein escaping one area resulted in entrapment within another cabin-like enclosure.
Another official said the rainwater was turbid, and there existed a possibility that the victims might have lost their footing while attempting to flee the perilous situation.
“The egress passageway, which served as the primary evacuation path for the other children, was also the principal conduit through which water forcefully surged into the basement. This inundation, propelled by the sheer force of the water, may have significantly contributed to the entrapment of the victims,” the fire official said.
The third body was extricated around 1.15 pm, but the rescue operation went on till 3am on Sunday. Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services, stated that most of the coaching centres in the vicinity had installed gates to prevent water from infiltrating their premises. However, at the time of the incident, the gate of the affected coaching centre had been broken, allowing the accumulated water from the street to seep into the establishment. “We inspected other centres in the area as well, but they did not suffer significant consequences due to waterlogging,” he added.