Ghulam Ali and Akram Ahmed recount their horrifying memories. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

A 13-year-old boy trapped on the third floor of 33C Topsia Road, engulfed in flames, staring straight at him and crying: “Ghulambhai, mujhe bacha lijiye (Please save me)...”

A moment early on Wednesday that will haunt Ghulam Ali for the rest of his life.

“It was a terrible sight... Soon after spotting the fire, I rushed to the roof of an adjacent building. The factory on the third floor was in flames and I stood paralysed for a few seconds. Then I heard the cries of the boy. He was standing near the window with one arm outstretched towards me. Suddenly, he collapsed... I was a mute spectator to his death. I was helpless...” recounted Ali, tears filling his eyes.

Ali, along with two other local youths, was the first to enter the building and carry out rescue operations.

“After smashing the lock, we carried out 18 workers, all huddled near the gate. They were badly burnt... We could not enter the third-floor factory which was ablaze,” he said.

With no sight of fire brigade officials till an hour and a half after the blaze, Ali and his aides did whatever they could.

And that included rescuing eight members of a family — four of them children — from their two-room flat on the terrace.

Ali and the others conducted rescue operations from the roof of an adjoining building. The women were urged to throw their children from one terrace to another, across the narrow chasm.

“Later, we brought a ladder to bridge the gap and the others clambered across,” explained Ali.

If Ali will never forget the boy he could not save, friend Akram Ahmed will never get over how “the hand of a youth came off when we tried to pull him to safety... It was so frightening”.