THANE, Aug. 1 -- Several residents of Kohinoor Apartment in Bhiwandi who managed to escape the crash on Thursday night said urgent repair work carried out by the contractor on Thursday evening prompted them to stop evacuating the building, but eventually cost them dear as it collapsed barely three hours later. Ramvilas Ram, a powerloom worker who survived the crash, said the pillars supporting the B wing of Kohinoor Apartment were in a dilapidated state as the cement and mortar had fallen away, exposing the metal rods inside. Around 8:30pm on Thursday, residents noticed a gaping crack in the building and began evacuating it, fearing it might collapse any time. "But a short while later, the contractor sent some workers who started providing support to the damaged pillars using wooden beams. Believing the issue had been addressed, residents stopped evacuating the building and some who had already left also returned," Ram said. "Around 11:20pm, the building suddenly collapsed, trapping residents beneath." Ram, his family and 5-6 other families took shelter in a nearby temple as the Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) was unable to provide temporary shelter, he alleged. Ram reckoned the collapse was triggered by improper work undertaken by the labourers sent by the contractor. "Instead of propping up the damaged columns from the ground beneath, the workers placed wooden beams for support inside the water tank, causing the columns to fail and resulting in the collapse of the building," he said. Ashish Pal, a first-floor resident, said that when the building started tilting shortly before it collapsed late at night, he, his mother and his father tried to escape to safety. "I had already reached the ground floor while my mother was locking the door and my father was with her when the building collapsed in a heap," Pal recounted. While he managed to rescue his mother, the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) team retrieved his father's body from beneath the debris on Friday. Santosh Kushwaha, another powerloom worker who moved into the building in 2024, said his 6-year-old son who suffered from multiple disabilities had died on Thursday morning, and the cremation was held around 5pm, hours before the building came down. Kushwaha said he had purchased the flat in the B wing of Kohinoor Apartment for Rs.4 lakh after taking a loan from a nationalised bank. "I have lost everything in the collapse. Now all I have left is the vest and lungi I am wearing," he said. Kushwaha too blamed the "improper repairs" carried out by the contractor's workers for the collapse. "We do not want any charity from the government. We need financial assistance so we can repay in installments and rebuild our lives," a distraught Kushwaha said....