Besides, Mumbai also has a set of major hospitals that are governed by the state administration and outside the authority of the BMC, which meant that they did not report to or co-ordinate with the civic agency and, in fact, tried to rival BMC hospitals in managing the crisis. Thus, it was not surprising that early into the bloodbath across the city, BMC Commissioner Jairaj Phatak decided that the BMC would not be the nodal agency to deal with the emergency and would report to whoever was in charge. From then on, it was a story of hits and misses.

According to records accessed by The Indian Express, the Fire Department got the first call on November 26 at 10.35 pm. The Police Control Room wanted fire tenders to reach the Oberoi-Trident hotels as grenades were being hurled inside. A team of firemen with seven fire tenders, four jumbo tankers, two aerial ladder platforms and a light van reached the location within 15 minutes. The first fire was noticed around 12.50 am when sections of the lobby below Kandahar restaurant caught fire and were doused quickly as the terrorists had moved to higher floors of the hotel.

The next call came at 1.01 am, again from the Police Control Room, asking the fire force to deploy a team at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers Hotel which was also under siege. Half the fire team at the Trident was sent to the Taj, which is barely 10 minutes away, and another team from the Colaba fire station was ordered to join the effort. But while Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor was himself on call outside the Oberoi-Trident to co-ordinate the response, the fire force officers found no one in charge outside the Taj.

... contd.