Uday Shivanand fire: We don’t play with fire, we save lives in infernos’

RAJKOT: It was just another cold winter night that the firemen had settled into, not expecting much disaster to happen with the curfew clamped for added protection. But they were to be rudley surprised when at 12.45 am the phone rang informing that about the fire in Uday Shivanand hospital. This was a hospital that had been closed for many years till Gokul Hospital took it on rent ion September 15, 2020 to run their Covid facility on the premises.
Station officer Firoz Luvani, 53, sprang into action and rushed with his young team, all under 35 years of age, to the spot within five minutes. But what they saw there filled everybody with horror.
Thick black smoke was billowing from the hospital and visibility was highly reduced in the haze. Not caring about injury or risks, the firefighters rushed in to break window panes to let the smoke out so that they could assess the situation inside.
“Our first priority was to rescue the patients amid the smoke. We first broke the window panes of the ICU to reduce suffocation. It was horrible...we could only see licks of fire thorugh the smoke and blood curdling screams of agony of the patients,” recalled Luvani, talking to TOI.
“We rushed in unmindful of the hazardous smoke and as far as possible physically lifted the patients on our shoulders outside to safety. We then called for hydraulic platforms, more firefighters and ambulance,” he said, adding that the first response team comprised six firemen, one van driver and an ambulance driver.
According to fire staffers, the hospital staff was trying handle the patients who were hysteric with fear and were screaming.
“There was only one gate for entry and exit. We knew we were entering a Covid hospital without any added protection, but were even forced to take off our normal masks because of the thick smoke. The hospital staff was wearing PPE kits, but we didn’t stop to worry about infection. We simply wanted to save as many lives we could and my boys started carrying patients on their shoulders,” Luvani said, adding that while he had in so many years of service faced many difficult calls, this was the most hazardous of all.
Thanking Mubarak Zuneja, Sanjay Babariya, Sanjay Mangela, Mahesh Hebha, Anil Solanki and drivers Kisansinh Jadeja and Yogesh Jani for rising up to the occasion valiantly, he said he was proud of his team for rescuing every possible patient that night from the three floors of the ill-fated hospital.
Talking to TOI, Luvani said that while it is mandatory to stay in isolation after coming in contact with Covid patients, none of his team members who physically assisted all Covid patients out of the burning hospital at night wanted to waste precious time by staying off duty and have rejoined office.