NEW DELHI: Six members of a family, including a toddler, suffocated to death after a mosquito coil ignited a fire in their Shastri Park house in north-east Delhi while they were asleep. “On March 31, a PCR call was received at Shastri Park police station informing it about a fire that broke out in a house at Mazar Wala Road, Machhi Market, Shastri Park,” said DCP Joy Trikey. “It was reported that a burning mosquito coil had fallen over a mattress sometime during the night. That created toxic fumes that caused inmates to lose consciousness and later die due to suffocation,” said Tirkey.
The police on reaching the site found that nine people had already been taken to the Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, the DCP said. The deceased included four men, one woman and a child. A 15-year-old girl and a 45-year-old man are being treated for burns while a 22-year-old man was discharged after first aid.
Recalling the incident, Akbar (46) said he was sleeping when his brother’s wife Sumaila shouted that a fire had broken out in her room.
“I ran to her room to stop the fire. As the fire took place on the ground floor, the smoke quickly filled the first floor of the house,” said Akbar. Upon receiving information about the fire, three fire tenders were sent to the site. Akbar’s brother Ajamat Ali and his niece Soni received injuries in the incident, but other members escaped from the other gate of the house.
“Among the dead, one was from our family and the remaining five were tenants. I saved Ajmat’s kids Aram, Farhaan and Mahira, but could not find my one-and-a-half-year-old niece Hamza in the smoke,” said Akbar. Nazreen, who lost her youngest daughter Hamza in the incident, was inconsolable. The police said further investigation is underway.