NEW DELHI: Suman (38), the sister of Shyam Singh and Kanta Prasad who perished in the fire, said Shyam’s daughter was engaged in December last year and the family was enthusiastically awaiting her marriage.
“I live in Gurugram with my husband and kids. I got a call around 6 am from Auraiya, our native home, about the incident. When I reached here, my two brothers were no more,” she mourned.
Prasad is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter, while Shyam is survived by his wife, one son and two daughters. Shyam and Prasad were living in the national capital for the last 20 years and working as construction workers laying underground pipes for the IGL.
Waiting outside Sabzi Mandi mortuary, Shyam and Prasad’s father Rampal said mourns the loss of both his sons. “I was at the site when the incident took place. Someone called me to tell I had lost both my sons,” he says between sobs.
Shivnath, who lives in another shack in the same DDA plot, said Nitin escaped from the hut but did not tell anyone that three were trapped inside. “We got to know about the incident when several people gathered at the scene. We saw Nitin come out of the shack... He said the three others had also escaped. However, when the fire tenders arrived and doused the blaze, we saw that the three had been charred to death inside the burning hut,” Shivnath, a DJB worker said.
Authorities suspect that a lamp, which had been placed inside the hut for lighting purposes, may have been the cause of fire. However, the cause will only be ascertained after a thorough investigation, senior police officials said.