Six people, including four women, who perished after a fire broke out at their house in northwest Delhi's Pitampura area, were unable to escape the blaze as their house doors, having electronic locks, had malfunctioned at the time of the incident.
The six, all residing on two separate floors, were identified as Rakesh Gupta (62), his wife Renu Gupta (62), Shweta (30), Kirti (25), Shanu Verma (27) and Santosh (25).
The fire was on the first and second floor of the 4-storey building. Preliminary investigation revealed that the cause of the fire was probably due to a room heater on the first floor which was probably kept on to dry the wet clothes.
Official sources told TNIE that an elderly woman on the first floor had switched on the room heater and left the house to buy medicines.
"Possibly some clothes caught fire which later spread to the whole duplex house. When the inhabitants on the third and fourth floor opened their windows to escape, the smoke entered and six people were suffocated to death," sources said.
Moreover the residents were unable to take the staircase route, as their doors, which were having electronic locks, were automatically locked and they were unable to open it, as the wires of the doors and its control box on the first floor was gutted in the fire.
According to Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg, their department received the call about the blaze around 8 pm on Thursday after which 8 fire engines were immediately dispatched to the spot i.e ZP block, Pitampura.
After dousing the flames, the firemen started a search operation and found the bodies of Rakesh Gupta, his wife Renu Gupta and their daughter Shweta on the third floor of the building and the bodies of two sisters -- Kirti and Shanu Verma -- from the fourth floor. Apart from the two siblings, one more body of a man named Santosh was found from the fourth floor.
The owner of the building resided on the first and the second floor (a duplex house), however, he was not present in the building at the time of the incident.
The bodies of the six victims were later handed over to the family members.
Meanwhile, the police have registered a case under sections 285 (Negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others.) and 304 A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code and begun investigating the incident.