LUCKNOW: Five members of a family, including three minor daughters and a shoe trader along with his wife, died after a massive fire broke out in a five-storey residential-cum-commercial building in the Chamanganj area of Kanpur late on Sunday night.
The blaze, triggered at around 10 pm in the basement of the building located in the Gandhi Nagar locality, spread rapidly through the structure.
According to local sources, the fire took just 10-15 minutes to reach the top floor where the family was staying.
According to Additional Deputy Commissioner of police (West), Rajesh Srivastava, over 20 people were rescued by the firefighters during the rescue and relief operation.
In fact, it took the firefighters around seven hours to douse the flames and rescue those trapped in the affected building. However, despite their repeated attempts, firefighters failed to reach the family on the top floor due to thick smoke and the high intensity of flames.
The sources claimed that all five bodies could be recovered only on Monday early morning, after the fire was brought under control.
Those who lost their lives in the tragedy included Mohammad Danish, 45, his wife Nazmi Saba, 42, daughters Sara, 15, Simra, 12, and Inaya, 7. “The firefighters found the youngest daughter clinging to her mother’s body,” said an official engaged in the rescue operation.
A total of 30 fire tenders were deployed, and a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team was rushed from Lucknow around 2 am.
A 500-metre radius around the building was cordoned off, and all nearby structures were evacuated.
The building was occupied by the families of three brothers. The deceased person’s brothers and their families lived on the third and fourth floors.
Firefighters managed to rescue four people from the third floor and three from the fourth using ladders. However, they were unable to reach the top floor where the victim’s family lived.
As per the authorities concerned, short circuit seemed to be the primary reason for the inferno in the shoe manufacturing unit, which was being operated on the ground floor and the basement.
The fire quickly engulfed the structure, creating a thick cloud of smoke. The flames engulfed the gas cylinders and ACs, leading to a series of blasts.
Local residents alerted emergency services and assisted in evacuations before firefighters arrived.
A nearby godown also caught fire during the incident. The distraught father of the deceased shoe trader said that he called up his son when the fire broke out, but the call dropped soon and he couldn’t reach the family again.
However, the local sources claimed that the deceased shoe trader was on the ground floor when it caught fire. First, he rescued his father and then rushed to the top floor to save his wife and three daughters, but could not return as they all got trapped in the flames, which rose to the fifth floor within no time.
The local sources said that the fire was so big and intense that the affected building was still smouldering and the smoke was billowing even 15 hours after the incident.