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20 Workers Would Have Burnt to Death, If Not for This Lady (and a Ladder!)

She wanted to make sure the workers were saved.

20 Workers Would Have Burnt to Death, If Not for This Lady (and a Ladder!)

Fires spread quick and fast and engulf everything in sight. God forbid, if you are trapped in a burning building, you have to keep breathing selectively while hunting for an escape route. Well, not everyone gets lucky. Sometimes, you need a true hero to save the day and help those who need it.

58-year-old Jyoti Verma was making breakfast, when her neighbour Kunti Devi, walked in and informed her about the raging fire in the shoe factory adjacent to Jyoti’s building.

The factory was burning, with workers trapped inside. Representative image only. Image Courtesy: Flickr
The factory was burning, with workers trapped inside. Representative image only. Image Courtesy: Flickr

The factory is located in Delhi’s Sultanpuri area, and Jyoti found out that many workers were trapped inside its 4-storey premises.

Without thinking twice, Verma ran out to help. Rushing to the terrace, she saw an open window on the third floor of the factory and noticed that 10 workers were screaming for help. A 15-foot gap separated the two buildings.

Initially, Jyoti threw a saree, for the workers to use to climb down and evacuate. However, the workers were scared and unable to use it.

It was then that Jyoti displayed an exemplary presence of mind. She found a small bamboo ladder, and using it as an overbridge between the factory and the building terrace, climbed on to the makeshift bathroom on the terrace.

She then proceeded to put one end of the ladder on the toilet roof, and the other end on the factory’s window, according to reports.

This way, Jyoti managed to evacuate at least 20 workers in the next 30 minutes.

It takes extreme courage to go against your own logic when you are faced with a disaster like this. A burning inferno is no place for amateurs, and even trained firefighters have lost their lives conducting rescue operations from burning buildings.


You may also like: Brave Madrassa Student Saves 20 Kids, Dies a Hero After Minaret Collapses!


However, Jyoti displayed immense bravery and more importantly, presence of mind, and saved the workers, who had it not been for her, would have certainly lost their lives and become another statistic.

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