Bailey Road fire: How did general people start rescue operation?

People were running with buckets filled with water to douse off the fire at the Green Cozy Cottage on Thursday night. Some people were using a narrow pipe to throw water at the entrance of the fire-erupted building. But the water was not sufficient to put down the fire.

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This was the scenario of the Baily Road on Thursday night. At least 46 people were killed, and over 20 others sustained severe injuries by a devastating fire on Thursday night, which engulfed a commercial building in the capital’s Baily Road area that housed several restaurants.

Local people did not wait for the firefighter to come to the spot. They started the rescue operation all by themselves.

On the second floor of the building, a woman was standing in front of the window of the Kacchi Bhai restaurant. She was requesting to rescue her daughter.

An individual was seen to climb up the sunshade to rescue the trapped people. But he could not reach it as the ladder was small.

The general mass waiting outside asked the woman to throw her daughter through the window so that they could catch and resume the girl.

At one point, someone arranged a larger ladder and many victims who were trapped inside Kacchi Bhai came down using it.

The fire broke out at around 9:45pm.

Firefighters rescued 70 people, including 42 in unconscious state, from the rooftop and different floors of the seven-storey Green Cozy Cottage.

Most of the people died as they jumped off the building or from burns or suffocation, said firefighters who brought the fire under control around 12:30am.

Fire officials say the blaze spread fast due to the presence of gas cylinders on several floors in the restaurant kitchens. People could not leave the building due to smoke in the staircase.