New Delhi: Mumtaz (23) is in the ICU of Safdarjung Hospital with burns from the Tughlaqabad building fire. She saved her two younger sisters Friday, and went back in for her cat, Coco.“Meri Coco kahan hai (where is my Coco)?” the young beautician kept asking her family in the burns ward ICU. The family does not know where Coco is as the cat was not seen anywhere.What they do know, though, is how Mumtaz saved her sisters first. As the flames and thick smoke engulfed the building, Mumtaz’s first instinct was take her sisters to safety. She helped Kareena (18) and Seema (16) get out of the building.After that, Mumtaz decided to rescue Coco.By then, there was thick smoke inside the building. Minutes later, Mumtaz realised she was trapped and called up her husband and other family members. Husband Deepak, a bike taxi driver, recalled her words during the phone call around 2am.Deepak was in Agra. He had gone there to help a friend and was sitting in a police station when his phone rang. “I got a call from Mumtaz. She was screaming and crying. She kept saying ‘bachao’. She said she couldn’t see a thing because of the smoke,” Deepak said. “I told her to stay calm and jump to the neighbouring terrace, if possible. She told me the smoke had reached our house,” he said.Mumtaz’s mother, Kishwar Jahan, said the family rushed to the building after getting her call. “When we reached, we learnt that she had somehow managed to get her sisters out. She opened the gates and helped them escape. But she went back inside for Coco,” Kishwar said.Coco was a gift to Mumtaz. The cat had come to her a little more than a month ago. She is repeatedly asking about her cat, Kishwar said.Mumtaz, who suffered burns and the effect of the smoke, is at the cusp of making a fresh start. She quit her job in a beauty parlour in Faridabad. She got a new job at a parlour in RK Puram. She was due to join in two days. The family was also preparing to move into a new rented accommodation nearby. “All our belongings were packed. We were supposed to shift tomorrow,” Deepak said.Mumtaz’s sisters are being treated at AIIMS.
