Monday, 17 December, was just another day for Sidhu Humanabade, a delivery boy working for Swiggy in Mumbai when he saw something that made him stop on the spot.
Smoke was wafting out of the ESIC Kamgar hospital in Marol, a locality in the suburb of the Andheri (East) and Sidhu could hear the screams of the people who were trapped. Wasting no time, he sprang into action, abandoned his bike and rushed to help.
Article and image source: TheBetterIndia.com
While the fire brigade had already reached the spot, and people were being evacuated with the help of a ladder, many were still stuck in the building and screaming for help.
Sidhu began to climb the ladder in an attempt to rescue the patients who were stuck. He climbed five storeys before he realised that a glass facade separated him from those in the building.
Using stones, he broke the glass and stood on the window ledge to get in and pull people out from different floors.
“Unfortunately, two patients fell down even as I helped them on to the ladder. I kept a ladder on the third-floor window ledge for an elderly woman to climb down, but the ledge collapsed as soon as she got on to the ladder. I could do nothing as she plunged down” – said the 20-year-old.
Completely disregarding his own safety, the brave young man worked along with the firefighters and managed to single handedly rescue ten people, despite being surrounded by smoke which made it impossible for him to see or even breathe properly.
Three hours into the rescue operation, Sidhu began to show signs of discomfort and complained of chest pain to a firefighter.
Fortunately, he was taken to a nearby hospital and was given immediate medical attention to counter the complications of having inhaled huge amounts of soot.
