“The disaster management this time was different—it had much more at stake. There were terrorists attacking civilians who were even held hostages. The two hotel buildings: Taj Hotel and the Oberoi-Trident Hotel were set on fire,” said deputy chief fire officer P Rahangdale. “There was a dispute on what to do first. Finally, we decided that while combating the fire was important, the most critical task was to rescue hostages.”

The strategy for the fire brigade was clearly set up: rescue as many hostages as possible. Aerial ladders, snorkels and turn-table ladders were set up at the Taj Hotel. “We started screaming and communicating with the hostages to come at the main façade near the sea-side. Ladders were set accordingly and people were being pulled out,” Rahangdale said.

Another fireman added, that the firemen spread themselves from all the sides of the building and after spotting hostages gave those directions to reach the nearest outlet or window. “We even rescued people from the backside of the poolside on the second floor,” said a fireman.

Their task got more difficult after terrorists set the sixth floor corridor on fire with some combustible material on late Wednesday evening, which later spread to the dome of the building. The blaze, however, was doused and around 350 hostages were rescued from the Taj Hotel alone the next morning.

At the Oberoi-Trident, the firemen said their job was the most difficult. “On Wednesday night, there was a fire on the first floor of the hotel near the reception. The smoke was so thick that we could not see anything. In all this commotion, the terrorists kept hurling grenades at us,” said a fireman involved in the operation.

With an aerial ladder partially placed inside the hotel, fire was doused as the terrorists took the hostages on the 18th floor of the building. “Had this fire not been put off on time, then it would have been worse than the Taj Hotel as it could have spread till the top floor,” he said.

The firemen said that the look of hapless people gave them the courage to fight and rescue them. Around 30 people from Oberoi-Trident were rescued on Thursday morning. “We took a risk of rescuing the hostages in the presence of terrorists. But it paid off finally. The hostages hugged and even kissed us after the rescue. They just couldn’t stop thanking us. We had put too much faith in the God,” said Rahangdale.