As many as 13 persons, including a woman, died and one got seriously injured after the under-construction dome at Ayurved Cancer Research Centre of Bharatiya Sanskriti Darshan Trust at Kesnand in Wagholi collapsed around 2.15 pm on Tuesday. While majority of those killed were labourers working on the fourth floor of the under-construction building, at least one of the deceased persons, identified as Abhishek Patil, was stated to be a civil engineer.
The victims were involved in cementing the slab under the dome supported by iron rods, pipes and angles erected from the ground floor to the fourth floor. While the slab work was on, the dome located over the duct came crashing along with the labourers. The labourers got buried under the rubble.
Efforts were on till late evening to ascertain the identity of the deceased. The lone injured person identified as Lobok Golisa (32) was admitted to the intensive care unit of Rakshak Hospital in Chandan Nagar.
After the fire brigade was informed around 2.40 pm, two fire tenders, a rescue van and a team of 20 firemen led by PMC chief fire officer Prashant Ranpise reached the spot and managed to extricate 13 bodies, the last one at around 7.10 pm.
“The rescue operation went on till evening. We found all the bodies on one side of the rubble on the ground floor. They were filling slab of the dome with cement on the fourth floor. The dome was supported by iron pipes and angles,” said Ramesh Gangad, assistant divisional fire officer, who was involved in the rescue operation.
Ranpise said the exact cause of the collapse is yet to be ascertained. Police said the cause of the slab collapse is being probed.
A team of Pune rural police was deployed at the spot during the rescue operation. Police said samples of construction material would be sent for lab test to understand the quality of work.
Additional Superintendent of Police Ravindrasinh Pardeshi said investigation is being carried out and action would be taken against those found guilty.
Pardeshi confirmed that Abhishek Patil who was among the 13 persons who died in the mishap was a civil engineer, but there was no confirmation from the contractor. Labourers reportedly hailed from Orissa and other states.
A 41-member team of Talegaon-based unit of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also called in for rescue operation. Alok Awasthi, commandant of the NDRF unit, said, “We received the information at 3.50 pm and the team was despatched by 4.15 pm. We were requested by the District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO) on behalf of the district collector to depute our team and we responded immediately.”