Looking beyond the Carlton

Families that lost their loved ones to a major fire tragedy are reaching out to others who are going through the same trauma as them. Here is a story by K.C.Deepika.

Bangalore: A man seen at a window of the Carlton towers, where a major fire broke out in Bangalore on Tuesday. At least nine people are feared dead and 60 others injured. PTI Photo (PTI2_23_2010_000195B)

Thick smoke bellowing out of a well-known high-rise in the city and people stuck inside desperately trying to save themselves — these are images that Bengalureans will not easily forget, let alone those directly affected by the fire tragedy in Carlton Towers on February 23, 2010. The incident left nine dead and 60 injured, some grievously.

It was quite a traumatic experience for the families of nine victims. One such family is that of Uday Vijayan, who lost his 23-year-old son, in the fire.

“A few months after the incident, I felt the need to reach out to the other families undergoing the same trauma. There were nine families that had lost one of their dear ones. I wanted to know how they were handling the trauma. But I also realised that we needed to move beyond grief, though anger persisted. Focus on people who were responsible for the accident was needed, but we also needed to turn the anger into something more positive and move beyond the accident. That is why we started ‘Beyond Carlton’,” said Mr. Vijayan, now 57 years old.

Less than three months after the tragedy, ‘Beyond Carlton’ was registered. Recalling the journey before that, he said: “Each family I reached out to was in a situation different from the other. While some families had lost breadwinners, I had lost my son. Though all families were undergoing the same kind of trauma, and adopting different ways to overcome the tragedy, one thing common was that all bereaved families were willing to lend support to the cause of fire safety.”

It has been five years since, and the trust, with Mr. Vijayan as its Managing Trustee, has managed quite a few breakthroughs with regard to fire safety issue. They have managed to rope in those with technical know-how in the field, who, as Mr. Vijayan put it, want to give something back to society and so provide consultation services to those who need it.

This is of course apart from leading to the empowerment of the Fire and Emergency Services Department to inspect high-rises for fire safety violations as a result of a PIL filed by ‘Beyond Carlton’.

But fire safety was not something that Mr. Vijayan, primarily an advertising and marketing person, was interested in. “Beyond Carlton was born not by design, but out of a tragedy and an accident, unlike others. I honestly knew nothing about the issue until then,” he said.

‘Beyond Carlton’ is now looking beyond Bengaluru, trying to reach out to people in Mumbai and New Delhi, where fire accidents are “as many or worse off in certain cases.”