Unnoticed heroes on Mumbai attack: Fire fighters

Unnoticed heroes on Mumbai attack: Fire fighters
Agencies Posted online: Nov 29, 2008 at 1746 hrs

Mumbai : They are neither from the Army, NSG or even the police, but when it came to putting their lives in the line of fire, both fire brigade personnel and the emergency medicos did so without any hesitation while rescuing people from the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels besides Nariman House. While the history of terrorism in the country was being re-written by a group of highly trained and motivated LeT terrorists from Pakistan, the unarmed service personnel moved about with the work, at times even coming under heavy gunfire and grenade attack.

"Our ambulance was asked to move into the lobby by the security personnel to take out some of the injured. As we rushed in, a grenade exploded right in front of our ambulance shattering the windshield. I ducked and hit my accelerator and we zoomed into safety," said Raju, a worker of Western India Automobile Association's ambulance.

"There were some pretty scary moments while we were fighting fires at the Taj Hotel. On Thursday night when we were in a cage trying to rescue guests, we saw one of the terrorists carrying a gun," A V Sawant, Chief Fire Officer said.

"Luckily for us he did not turn in our direction and we managed to continue fighting the fire," Sawant said.

"On Friday morning we were asked to get in and take out the body of a commando. We were given bullet-proof jackets and asked to move to the first floor along with some commandos. We climbed up but while coming back suddenly some shots were fired at us and the commandos retaliated. Luckily we rushed out with the injured officer," Mohammad Yunus Sheikh, an attendant with a private emergency response company, said.