The toll in the Stephen Court blaze rose to 34 on Sunday with a charred body being retrieved from the sixth floor even as residents barred from entering the “unsafe” sections signed risk bonds to rummage through their flats for things to salvage.

An officer at Shakespeare Sarani police station said the body found under the debris was so decomposed that it was impossible to ascertain without forensic help whether it was of a male or female victim of Tuesday’s fire. “We are continuing the search for more bodies under the pile of steel and concrete in the gutted sections,” he added.

As the toll climbed, eight families desperate to go in despite the danger of a cave-in exercised the risk-bond option after police and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation refused to accept responsibility for any accident occurring while they were in the building.

Lata and K.K. Shah risked their lives to go inside not to retrieve valuables but their daughter’s books.

“Our daughter Ruchika, who is writing her ICSE examinations, has been asking for the books that we were forced to leave behind in our fifth-floor flat while fleeing the fire. The incident has already taken its toll on her and I don’t want her to suffer more,” said Lata, who came down later with two bags full of books and Ruchika’s school uniform.

Ruchika’s mathematics paper is slated for Monday.

Anjana Agarwal, who also went in after signing the bond, said the climb up the stairs to her fifth-floor residence was scary. “Although my house is safe, it was kind of spooky to go up in such a situation. It was very dark from the fourth floor, and the policeman accompanying us had to light his torch to show us the way,” she added.

So what made her risk going up to the fifth floor against the advice of the police and the civic body?

“I was a bit hesitant about signing the bond but other residents who wanted to go in gave me the courage to put pen to paper. They said the building wasn’t as unsafe as officials were making it out to be,” said Anjana, who retrieved some household appliances and other “essential things” to take away to her parents’ house in Howrah.

Hari Prasad Garodia signed the risk bond and endured the stench of death all the way up to the sixth floor to bring back an idol of the family deity, his medicines, spectacles and a box of beads that his mother had asked him to preserve. “I am happy to have succeeded in my mission. I now hope and pray our flat will survive this disaster,” said Garodia.

Policemen accompanied those who went in but the absence of protective gear left the residents fuming. “A risk bond does not mean the police are relieved of all responsibility. The cops didn’t bother to provide us basic protective gear like helmets. When we asked for helmets, they claimed they were unavailable,” said K.K. Shaw.

Members of 32 other families were allowed in on Sunday, though they weren’t required to sign risk bonds because their flats are on the relatively safer floors.

Two owners of flats on the upper floors had signed risk bonds on Saturday but couldn’t go up because it was dark by the time they had made up their mind.

A senior police officer said some flat owners were so adamant about going in that getting them to sign risk bonds was the only option. “But we made sure they didn’t stay longer than half-an hour,” he added.