Four persons of a family, including two children and an elderly man, suffocated to death after a fire broke out on the ground floor of a four-storey building in east Delhi’s Dilshad Colony on Friday.
The residents of the building said the fire started after a short circuit in one of the electricity meters and spread to the upper floors within minutes.
Vijay Kumar Verma (63), his son-in-law Sanjay Verma (45) and the latter’s children -- Harshu (12) and Chiku (4) -- died while trying to escape their second-floor flat.
Two others, including Mr Vijay’s daughter Mona Verma (32), were injured in the fire.
Caught unawares
Harshu, who turned 12 on Thursday, and her family members had returned home after celebrating her birthday.
They were all sleeping when the fire erupted around 3 a.m. Eyewitness Devashish Hota (25), who resides on the ground floor, said he was the first one to notice the electricity meters on fire.
“I heard some noise from the meters. When I went outside to check, I saw all the 11 meters on fire. I told my parents and alerted other neighbours. Meanwhile, the bikes and scooties [at least eight] parked below the meter boxes also caught fire and the petrol in them helped the flames spread to the upper floors,” he said.
Mr. Hota said he called the fire brigade and the police who immediately reached the spot. “Eight fire tenders were rushed and the fire was doused by 5 a.m.,” said a fire department official.
Locked gate
Shankar Durani, who resides on the third floor, said the Verma family tried to escape through the terrace but its gate was locked.
“When they heard the neighbours screaming and saw the smoke outside their house, they ran towards the terrace but it was locked. While returning to their flat, they suffered burns and suffocated to death,” he said.
Mr. Vijay’s daughter, who suffered 40-50% burns, and her nine-year-old daughter, Deeshu, were pulled into the house of one of the neighbours.
Ms. Mona was first taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and later referred to Safdarjung Hospital where she is undergoing treatment and is said to be in a critical condition.
Another eyewitness, Anil Sharma, said some of the residents were rescued with the help of a wooden ladder brought from a neighbour’s house.
Rescue attempt
“As soon as we managed to come out of the building, we started helping those trapped on the upper floors. The ladder came in use to bring down a few, but it broke after some time. Three to four people made a rope using sarees and came down, but a woman fell mid-way and got injured,” said Mr. Sharma, adding that some residents stayed in their flats and fortunately remained unharmed.
The injured woman, Binesh Rathi (40), a schoolteacher, was rushed to Max Hospital in Vaishali.
The police have registered a case under Sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
