Tragedy strikes: One fatality, two trapped in Dombivali building collapse

The search and rescue operation of the fire brigade and local disaster management cell was underway at the site under the supervision of Dangde and other senior officials.

Thane: A 55-year-old man died after a four-storey residential building that was dilapidated and declared dangerous by civic authorities collapsed in Dombivali East in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Friday, an official said.

The building ‘Adinarayan Bhuvan’, located at Ayre village in Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation limits, had 44 tenements and occupants were being evacuated since Thursday after some part of the structure started sinking, he said.

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At round 5:40 pm on Friday, it collapsed, and search and rescue teams pulled out the body of Suraj Birja Lodya (55) from the debris some time later, he said.

KDMC chief Bhausaheb Dangde said two persons, who are believed to be unwell, were feared trapped while all other occupants had been evacuated.

“The 50-year-old building was declared dangerous and a notice had been issued asking occupants to vacate. Many had vacated but some had returned to the building,” Dangde told reporters.

The structure was sinking and the process of evacuating occupants began on Thursday evening and was underway at the time it collapsed, he informed.

“It was an unauthorised building and tagged as a dangerous structure by the KDMC earlier,” another official said.

The search and rescue operation of the fire brigade and local disaster management cell was underway at the site under the supervision of Dangde and other senior officials.

Another civic official at the site said there were 40 buildings in the ward that had been declared dangerous, while there were 602 such structures under various categories in KDMC limits.

Replying to a query on civic action on such structures, Dangde said the immediate priority was the search and rescue operations at the site of the collapsed building.

Earlier, Thane Municipal Corporation disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said a team of the Thane Disaster Response Force had also rushed to the site after it got an alert about the building collapse.