NEW DELHI: Four people, including a nine-month-old infant, suffocated to death after a fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi’s Shahdara area on Friday evening, an official said.
The deceased were identified as Pratham Soni (17 ), Rachna (28), Gauri Soni (40) and Ruhi (9 months). Apart from the dead, two others were rescued from the building and are currently admitted to the hospital and undergoing treatment. They were identified as Radhika (16) and Prabhawati (70). Both of them have received hand and leg injuries.
Sharing details of the fire incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said that a PCR call was received at 5:22 pm on Friday evening at MS Park police station regarding a fire in a Ram Nagar building and the caller further stated that some people were trapped in the building.
Sensing the gravity of the incident, the police immediately swung into action and Station House Officer (SHO) of MS park police station reached the spot along with other police personnel. The police along with the help of locals rescued three people from the building and shifted them to a nearby hospital.
Parallely, at around 5.20 pm, the fire department was also intimated and five fire tenders were dispatched to the spot. As the fire brigade reached and the blaze was extinguished, three more people were rescued from the ill-fated building and taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. “Four among the six were declared dead at the GTB hospital while the remaining two are still under treatment,” the senior officer told this newspaper.
According to the officer, the building comprised of ground plus four floors with a single staircase and was built in an area of around 50 square yards. “During the primary inspection some material related to the wiper was stored in the ground floor from which the fire started,” the DCP said.
The official informed that the owner of the building, Bharat Singh, resided on the ground and the first floor while the rest of the floors had tenants. “We have begun an investigation and appropriate legal action is being taken in the matter,” the senior official added.
Earlier this month, a fire broke out at a multi-storey residential building in north-west Delhi’s Pitampura killing six people. The fire was suspected to have been caused by a room heater. The kin of the deceased alleged that the “malfunctioning” automatic door locks installed at the residence prevented the victims from escaping the premises.
Legal action being taken in the matter, say cops
The police said the building had ground plus four floors with a single staircase and was built in an area of around 50 square yards. “During the primary inspection some material related to the wiper was stored in the ground floor from which the fire started,” the DCP said. The official informed that the owner of the building, Bharat Singh, resided on the ground and the first floor while the rest of the floors had tenants. “We have begun an investigation and appropriate legal action is being taken in the matter,” the senior official added.