Behrampada After The Fire

Behrampada After The Fire, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

I start a new set at Flickr of the after effects of the disastrous fire at Behrampada , a sprawling slum of 70000 people or more , with houses built right up to 4 floors or more mostly illegal.
On 19 June 2009 certain areas of this slum caught fire killing a child and a few adults, there are more bodies under the debris, that I shot this afternoon..this area is very congested , very narrow lanes that even after 4 days after the fire one can hardly move in..calamity has struck at a bad time as the rains has begun.

I am very close to Mr Shabbir Shaikh the local Samajwadi Corporator , he has done a lot with the locals to help the homeless and the needy..opening of relief camps , medical aid, and a common kitchen including clothes.

I normally dont shoot disasters, house crashes or floods, I would not be able to shoot pictures while people are running helter skelter for their lives as saving lives is more important than shooting a tragedy... this is my opinion I adhere to it. I am human first , a photographer later.

There was a blaze close to my new house at Bandra Reclamation , before I came here I never shot it.,.I shot the train serial bomb blast late in the night after all the bodies had been removed from the tracks and the train compartments.

After the shoot I sat at Mr Shabbir Shaikhs office at Bismillah Compound, he has not slept for couple of days, and is coordinating with political heads of various parties , the human angle cuts through all party lines ..

Mr Shaikh told me the bulldozers cant move in to remove the debris as the survey is not yet over, the residents are sitting out in the open, to mark their houses, the landlords and their tenants.
There were a lot of industrial units , ready made garments, masjid, provision stores all gutted down..

Many resident begged me to shoot them next to their gutted houses or what remained of them..it was very sad and the pain to touched me , kids looking blank into what was a comfortable home a few days back.

A lot of relief has come in , people are giving out cash to those who lost everything.. the saddest is a family of ten on one slum, a two story structure , they managed to throw their 14 year old out of the window but could not save themselves .. members of this family lie buried in the debris..

There are people living under the sky walk, or where ever they can find shelter..you will have to see my pictures and gather their story of loss..all dreams gone with the fire and the wind.