Delhi: Hours after birthday celebration, 12-year-old, family die in a fire incident
NEW DELHI: In a tragic incident, few hours after celebrating the birthday of a 12-year-old girl, four family members including the girl died in a fire broke out in a four story building on Friday early morning. According to the police, two others, including the girl's mother have suffered burn injuries and admitted to a nearby government hospital.
“A call was received at 2:55 am about the blaze which started on the ground floor and subsequently spread to the other floors of the building. When we reached the spot found smoke coming out from the ground floor of the building,” a senior Delhi Fire Services official said. The cause of the fire is suspected to be an electric short-circuit. Almost a dozen of fire tenders took one hour to douse the blaze. Fire officials are claiming that due to parking of vehicles, fire tenders couldn’t reach on time.
The bodies of 12-year-old Harshu, her father Sanjay Verma (40), grandfather Vijay Verma (63) and brother Chiku (four) were found on the staircase.
Cops are suspecting that Verma family tried to get out of their second-floor apartment, got caught in the flames and smoke on the stairs and died of suffocation. They said the fire was not a "major" one, and there would have been no casualties, had the Verma family stayed indoors or parked themselves on the balcony.
The other occupants of the building, which houses 11 flats, either stayed on their balcony or rushed to the rooftop to escape the fire. Harshu's mother Mona (34) was undergoing treatment at the GTB Hospital.