The four lifeguards posted by the fire brigade at the Aksa beach in Malad (west) managed to save the lives of 13 persons from drowning in two separate incidents on Tuesday.
The first incident took place at around 3.25 pm, when a group of young boys aged between 19 and 21 jumped into the water along with a 13-year-old girl. All the youngsters are residents of Malwani in Malad.
“When our lifeguards Mohan Erande (22), Nathuram Suryavanshi (22), Pritam Kolhi (24) and Samir Kolhi (21) saw them drowning, they jumped into the water and managed to save their lives,” said senior lifeguard Rajanikanth Mashelkar.
Around 3.45 pm, eight members of Mohammad Shakir Ansari’s family got into the water and were pulled in by the strong current.While three of them were women aged between 26 to 40, the rest were youngsters aged between 13 and 18 years. The alert lifeguards jumped in again and managed to save them in the nick of time. “I had heard horror stories about people drowning on this beach. I am thankful to the lifeguards,” said Mr Ansari. “In my 35-year-long career I’ve never seen so many lives being saved in a day,” said Mr Mashelkar.
On May 5, three out of four youths drowned off the Aksa beach as they had ventured deep into the choppy waters during high tide. A lifeguard posted at the beach saved one of them. The number of lifeguards was increased to four after this incident.