Brave woman uses bamboo ladder, saves life of 20 workers from factory fire
Woman uses bamboo ladder, saves life of 20 workers from factory fire. 58-year-old Jyoti Verma saved the lives of 20 workers, who along with 30 others, were trapped inside a burning four-storey footwear factory in Delhi on Monday morning. Verma used a small bamboo ladder as a makeshift overbridge between the factory and the terrace of the two-storey building where she lives, and evacuated at least 20 workers. Around 6.30am, Verma said she was making breakfast when her neighbour Kunti Devi told her about a fire in the factory adjacent to her building. Verma rushed to her terrace and saw at least 10 workers screaming for help. “I was horrified seeing the smoke and fire billowing out. Initially, I had no idea how to rescue them,” said Verma. Verma said there was a gap of at least 15 feet between the two buildings and she did not want the workers to risk their lives by jumping across. She asked them not to jump onto her terrace yet and then rushed to her room. “All she could find was a small bamboo ladder. I climbed on a makeshift bathroom (on the terrace) and put one end of the ladder on roof of the toilet and the other end on the window of the factory,” said Dharmendra. “We cannot come up with words to thank them (Verma and Dharmendra). For us they were God,” said 21-year-old worker Mohammad Ali, who survived the blaze because of their help. A neighbour Mukesh Yadav alleged that the factory had been running illegally for the past 10 years. -PTC News
