Honouring the Carlton heroes

One year after the tragedy that claimed nine lives, beyond Carlton, a trust set up by 1,000 Bangaloreans, will be giving out best firemen of the year awards

On February 23, it will be one year since Bangalore's worst fire tragedy at Carlton Towers, which left nine dead and more than 60 injured. After the tragedy, a trust was formed, with more than 1,000 registering on social networking websites such as Facebook.


Fatal leap: In a bid to save his life, a man jumped from the top floor
of the blazing Carlton Tower. Pic/Satish Badiger

Melissa Arulappan, Beyond Carlton Trust, said, "We have planned to have a private memorial function by the family and friends of the deceased at Manipal Hospital on Old Airport road. We has also organised a free health check up camp for fire force personnel, and will be giving a Best Firemen of the Year award, starting this year.

The trust conducts fire awareness programmes in the last week of every month, and has associations with many corporates. At the end of every program, they have an interactive session on fire safety and sharing of experiences on the day of the accident. The trust also conducts quizzes, and photo exhibitions of buildings that have violated the fire safety norms.

A senior fire force officer said, "It has become very difficult for us to proceed with the investigations as we have not received the details of the property loss, number of offices, and names of the owners or the occupants. The Carlton Towers Owners Association is yet to furnish these details to us."

He added, "The trust has decided to give away 'Best firemen of the year' awards, and selected three from our fraternityu00a0-- K T Prakash, who saved two persons by carrying them down from the seventh floor. The other two are Mudassir Hussain and Venkatesh, who were the first to reach the scene on 'Agni', a bike with mist-technology and entered the building," he added.

Prakash had suffered a slipped disc after the incident, and had to undergo physiotherapy treatment for about six months. Now he is back in action. "I am very happy to know that I have been selected for the award for saving lives," said Prakash.