Social Mirror: In Your Face

One after the other I saw them jump off the sixth floor

Late afternoon on Tuesday, I was at home to grab a quick bite between the day’s back-to-back assignments when I received a frantic call from my boss alerting me about a fire at Carlton Towers on Old Airport Road. Food half-eaten, I grabbed my camera and rushed out. Since I was close to the ill-fated building, I chose to leave my two-wheeler behind and ran instead. It was a wise decision considering the massive traffic jam and the number of ambulances and fire engines lined up to get near the building.

The sky above bore a dark shade of grey. As I went closer, I saw a large number of people standing around the building watching the drama unfold. My first instinct was to get as close to the building as possible to get good shots of the fire. Dense smoke was gushing out of the top floors of the seven-storey building and the flames only got thicker. I noticed people at the windows of the topmost floors. I looked around quickly for a place from where I could get the best photographs. Within seconds, I was running up the MG Road wing of the Domlur flyover.

From there, I saw the firemen on the ground holding up a mattress on top of which was a small heap of towels, bedspreads and cloth. My worst fears were coming true when the people holding up the mattress shouted out to those at the window to jump.

Read the rest… »