Palghar: A tragic building collapse late Tuesday night in Palghar district’s Virar claimed two lives and left several injured, with rescue operations still underway. Officials confirmed that the rear portion of Ramabai Apartment, a four-storey building, crumbled around 11:30 pm, crashing onto an adjoining chawl and trapping multiple residents under debris.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Fire Department, and Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation teams launched a joint rescue operation soon after the incident. NDRF Deputy Commander Pramod Singh stated that two NDRF teams, one each from Mumbai and Palghar, were deployed to the site immediately after receiving the alert at midnight.
"Two teams of the NDRF responded to the accident site. One team is from Mumbai and one is from Palghar. As soon as the information was received at 12 am, the nearest team responded. In the primary manual and canine search, four people were pulled out. Among them, one was dead, and three were rescued alive. A one-year-old child died on the way to the hospital. 11 people have been rescued so far."
"The locals say that around 5 people may still be trapped... The rescue may continue today and tomorrow. All the work has to be done manually as the way to the building is narrow and heavy machinery cannot be brought here..." NDRF Deputy Commander Pramod Singh said, adding that the narrow lanes made it impossible to deploy heavy machinery.
So far, 11 individuals have been rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals in Virar and Nala Sopara. The deceased have been identified as 24-year-old Aarohi Omkar Jovil and one-year-old Utkarsha Jovil.
The injured include Prabhakar Shinde (57), Pramila Shinde (50), Prerna Shinde (20), Vishakha Jovil (24), Manthan Shinde (19), and Sanjoy Singh (24). Others like Pradeep Kadam (40), Jayashree Kadam (33), and Mitali Parmar (28) were discharged after receiving first aid.
Authorities fear more casualties as search and rescue continues under challenging conditions. The collapse has once again raised questions over the safety of old residential structures in the rapidly growing Vasai-Virar region.
