Late night horror in lift for filmgoers

Seventeen trapped inside elevator for over five hours after late show in Kalyan mall

Yogesh Sadhwani

     

Posted On Monday, August 09, 2010 at 03:19:29 AM

Seventeen people stepped out of a night-show of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai only to walk into a real life psycho-thriller that lasted five and a half hours. The group, with two children in its midst, spent the night trapped in a packed lift at the Metro Junction Mall, Kalyan (East). At first, when the lift stalled between the first and the ground floor around 12.30 am, the people trapped inside thought it was a minor malfunction and they would be home soon. They banged on the door and shouted for help. Mall officials rushed to the site and opened the door but the space between the elevator and the first floor was so small that the victims could not be brought out. After this, as minutes turned to hours, panic mounted. Those trapped could barely move. Not only were there far too many of them but they also feared the lift would crash if they didn’t stay still. With only a small opening for fresh air, they were petrified of suffocation. Dinesh and Reena Chadda were in this lift with their two-year-old son Aarush. “My son was asleep for the first three hours. But when he awoke he started bawling. That was when things took a turn for the worse for us,” said Dinesh, a real estate consultant and a resident of Kalyan. His wife added, “The lift was packed. I was filled with feelings of dread that we would not make it. I kept thinking about the firemen who suffocated to death in a Thane lift.” Nand Chhapru, a businessman, who was also with his wife and child, said, “There was no place to move.” It was horror in slow motion for the victims. Chadda said, “The people outside did not seem to know what to do. Luckily, the lift lights did not malfunction. They had also put up a fan at the opening and were passing us water. Most of our cellphones had no network.” Trapped victims peep out from the gap between the lift and first floor. The rescue For the first two hours, the mall management and lift technicians tried to rectify the snag. However, they realised that the problem was complicated and technicians from Kone, the lift manufacturing company, were called in. “The safety mechanism of the lift was locked. We could neither unlock nor break it,” said Mac Daniels, vice president of West Pioneer, which owns the 7.5 lakh square feet mall. When authorities brought in gas-cutters to unlock the safety mechanism, the victims opposed them, fearing the smoke would suffocate them. Finally, the fire department decided to take charge. “We got a fork lift and lifted the cabin up one floor,” said Sudesh Shinde, fire officer in Kalyan. It was only around 5.45 am that the cabin was brought to the first floor and the 17 people rescued. What went wrong The victims were angry that the lift did not have an attendant. “They started telling us that the lift got stuck because it was overcrowded. But when we got in, there was no warning or alarm. Had there been a guard or attendant, he would have asked some people to get off,” said Chhapru. The fire department conducted a primary survey of the elevator and submitted a report to the municipal commissioner. “We need to look at the service records and other safety elements at the mall. Once the detailed inspection is complete we will initiate action,” said Govind Rathod, commissioner of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation. Elevators at Metro Junction Mall, Dinesh and Reena Chadda with their 2-yr-old son Aarush had a horrifying night after a perfect Saturday Daniels said the mall took full responsibility for the incident. “It was very unfortunate. We are relieved that everybody got out safe. The lift was serviced on time and we are examining what went wrong. Till then, we are keeping close watch on all the other lifts in the mall,” he said. At the time of going to press, Kolsewadi police had not registered a case against the mall. “Patrons have not filed an official complaint yet. They are expected to come in on Monday to file one,” said the senior inspector Jagdish Lohalkar. Many of the patrons do intend to pursue the matter.  “We were lucky to have escaped without any major loss. But there was no attendant in the lift and the mall officials did not know what to do for hours. It is essential that they appoint people to attend to such emergencies,” said Chhapru.