Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Sashi, my very sensible manager who held us all together during the ordeal, consented to letting me share this email exchange. I’ve removed all name references for privacy:

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From: Sashi
Subject: Lessons to learn - Carlton Towers Fire

…

Thanks to all the well wishers like you, we made it out of the building after staying in for 1 hr and 45 minutes approximately. We were blessed compared to some others who had terrible experience to report and some not there to report anymore.

I was overwhelmed with the number of people from [snip] that were there for me and was wondering if I did the right thing by calling [snip], creating panic and helplessness for you all watching from below. But our heartfelt thank you goes to each one of your wishes and prayers to give us strength to stay calm.

In fact I decided to call [snip] to draw upon the [snip] muscle power (to get some fire engines immediately), because even after 30-40 minutes after the smoke broke out there was total cluelessness with the ground personnel in the building and no sign of help in the vicinity. It would have helped if someone gave us a big picture on PA system of what was happening, some quick measure that have been taken, that help is on its way, and what we needed to do in the meantime.

Few other things that were very disturbing for me personally was.

• Smoke alarms did not operate though I had personally tested the alarm in our reception when we moved in, 3 months ago. I could alert my team only after I sensed the burning smell. It was clearly the smell of electrical wire burning. When we suspected some mishap in our unit and peeped out to the reception area we started seeing smoke creeping in through the closed door gaps and it was totally dark outside our glass door. So by this time the entire corridor leading to any type of exit was engulfed with smoke. If the smoke alarms were battery operated they should have caught the smoke way ahead, I doubt if they are.

• Exit doors did not open for they were locked and it had to be broken open. Goes to show lack of fire drill.

• Help arrived to the building 60 minutes after the smoke broke. Today I hear the firemen reported in less than 30 minutes upon the request reaching them, which only goes to say there was a delay in reporting by at the least 20 minutes. The building admin was not even aware of the situation when I called her to ask for advice and thereafter did not pick up calls.

• No announcement was made on what the situation was, neither was a request made on PA system for people to stay calm. Even public watching from outside did not have a word to say when victims in the building were yelling for help which increased the uncertainty in everyone’s mind. I am told there was some announcement, by people on the ground, which did not reach our ears in any case.

• When help finally arrived, they had no access to many of the floors including the 5th floor we were in. The men who walked in to take us to safety eventually did not even a have a mask on. Such was the preparedness of fire men. They were not even apprised of the cause for fire (more of smoke). They seem to have come prepared to put down the fire but not so much to deal with smoke and putting off smoke.

• They were ill equipped for the situation in many ways

• The building structure by itself was not at all conducive for exit nor entry of service men in a fire/smoke situation. Upto 5th floor we have sliding windows which is easy to open and close, but to prevent mishap and security reasons quite a few 6th and 7th floor offices have grill structure behind the glass pane which makes it difficult for people to reach out for fresh air. Also the windows have to opened by lifting them (angle glass panes) which makes the operation and access very difficult (you would have noticed in some of the pictures).

• There was total lack of leadership given the multi owner/tenant situation. It should have been possible to get the armed forces and HAL copters involved in the rescue operations with some hanging ladders and safety nets, given the proximity of both these locations. I do not know what it takes to make such a call and execute on it even as an exception. Such an attempt could have quite possibly saved all lives.

• Most of us have experienced fire drills and I am not sure how often one is taught how to deal with smoke extensively, at the least I could not recall. We may have to use videos to demo some of these and with more frequency to increase the recall value

We were lucky in several counts.

• We had an airtight door just after the conference room separating the main work area which prevented corridor smoke coming in.
  

• We did not have centralized A/C therefore a/c ducts did not carry smoke in.

• We had sliding windows which enabled us to maneuver the smoke better and stay in a safe and comfortable breathing zone.

• We neither had visitors nor volunteers in [the day before] yesterday which would have increased our responsibility and therefore possible panic.

• We had lot of people praying for us

More than everything we had a very small team 6 people in the office yesterday and the team stuck together in the decision to stay in and wait rather than taking a plunge into the smoke, even though it was attempted by two for a fraction of a second and then given up as a bad idea. One of them was busy twittering to keep himself calm. Here is the link of the same

http://www.india.com/news/india/blore-man-tweets-while-stuck-burning-carlton-towers_7243.

Thank you again for keeping us in your thoughts and being with us in person.

Hope we all learn from such instances (expensive learning) and have better safety measures designed in.

We are definitely happy to be alive.

Thanks,
Sashi

---- Quoted Message ----

From: [snip]
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:26 PM
Subject: Lessons to learn - Carlton Towers Fire

Hi Team, In the recent Carlton Tower fire incident at Bangalore, there was a rare opportunity to talk to an important person who was trapped in the said building. As a matter of fact I witnessed the complete incident. Information gathered/ a few lessons which could be grasped was:-

• There was no credible evacuation drill practiced. This is true since people were actually trapped and could not evacuate due to heavy smoke.

• Fire alarm was very feeble and was not audible. The facilities helpdesk / security help desk, whom occupants generally contact, in such events were unaware of the fire till such time the occupants informed them to initiate action of calling fire brigade. This led to loss of time and heavy buildup of smoke which prevented safe evacuation of more than 150 occupants.

• The building was multi tenanted and multi owned too. This led to lack of ownership for emergency management.

• There was no history of training and nomination of fire wardens / ERT members in Carlton Towers.

• Whereabout of the occupants were not known to anyone. All were on their own.

• Smoke generated from the interiors of air-conditioned buildings is thick and heavy and contains a lot of poisonous gases due to the nature of synthetic materials used inside the buildings. It travels up-words through stair cases and as a consequence the stairwells were chocked with smoke, preventing evacuation. Therefore there is a need for timely evacuation.

• Fire tenders took anywhere between 40mins to 90 mins to arrive at the scene. There were no building management personnel to guide them to the source of fire nor did anyone of authority brief them.

• We did not see the fire hydrant hoses of the building being used at all. They were presumably non functional / no one was trained to use them.

• Occupants were not aware of the fire exits.

• The building compound architecture was such that fire tenders had to park almost 100 ft away from the building, thus rendering their ladders ineffective.

• Being on the main road (airport road), there were a lot of bystanders/observers. This hindered movement of traffic and completely jammed the space for movement of fire tenders and ambulances.

• The fire tender with snorkel arrived after 2 hrs, delaying the complete evacuation process, especially of the 4-6 floors.

• There were a lot of civilian population especially youngsters who were good Samaritans. Their contribution was more than the fire brigade people. The fire brigade people were completely stunned and motionless due to poor information of the building as well as outdated equipment. The ladders they carried were woefully ineffective.

• It is very important to note that inside the building, breaking glass doors, windows and wooden doors should be resorted to only after ascertaining the temperature of the partition / door since it may lead to flash once the door / partition is opened due to influx of oxygen which will reignite / refuel the fire. This is a dangerous action and needs special training.

• Bystanders who took over the evacuation process were ill informed about safe evacuation techniques. Occupants were asked to slither down the water hose pipes and ill equipped nets. Some slipped down and fell and succumbed to their injuries.

• Lack of leadership in times of adversity was rampantly visible. Each one was on his own. It is understandable, but, at such times, managers should assume leadership and guide their teams to do the right actions.

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I did hear the alarm, but it was feeble. It sounded like it was going off in another part of the building. I wouldn’t have heard if I had headphones on, like I usually do at work.

The 6th and 7th floors had the worst time of all because they had smoke coming in through the A/C ducts, their windows wouldn’t open easily, and their access to the stairway was locked up. (I use the stairs regularly and the 5th floor is never locked.)

Update: Edited out a few personal references, for clarity.