Another victim who died in the fire on Wednesday in Noida’s Sector 11 office has been identified as Parikshit Sharma (27). He hailed from Shamli district in western Uttar Pradesh.
On Wednesday, three victims were identified as HR manager Jasmeet Kaur (20), manager Indra Pratap Singh and supervisor Vivek Kochar. The police have asked for DNA sampling for two more bodies.
Missing employee
One of Excel Greentech Pvt. Ltd.’s director Sanjoy Das is missing. His wife Navena was shown two bodies but did not identify either of them as Sanjoy Das.
After an inspection on Thursday, senior officials from the Uttar Pradesh fire department found that there were no fire safety arrangements inside the building, both in terms of structure and equipment.
Arvind Kumar, joint director, UP fire department, who arrived from Lucknow to visit the building, said: “There was no proper setback or rescue area. There was fire equipment inside the building but it was not functional. There should have been smoke alarms. It appears that electronic access controls were installed inside the building. So after the fire, wires were also damaged and people could not reach the roof to save their lives,” Mr. Kumar said.
Terrace door locked
The fire officials said that the six people killed in the fire could have been saved had the door to the terrace on the fourth floor not been locked, said fire department officials.
The victims were working on the third floor of the four-storey Excel Greentech building in Noida’s Sector 11.
“The gate that leads to the terrace, on the fourth floor, was locked. Those who ran downstairs managed to save their lives but the six who tried to escape by running upstairs got burnt. If the gate had not been locked, six lives could have been saved,” Mr. Kumar said.
Fire officials said the building was stashed with inflammable material like electronic goods, wires and paper. The ground floor, meant to be a car parking, was also used for storage. The third floor was the office area while the basement and first floor was used by labourers, who had left for lunch.
