Four days after the death of a young interior designer in a fire that broke out in a group housing society in Sector 69 here, her mother died during treatment at a hospital in Madhya Pradesh on Friday.
The victim, 55-year-old Vaishali, had gotten stuck in the smoke-filled staircase while trying to escape the blaze. The fire had started due to a short-circuit in the electricity meter on the ground floor of Tulip Orange group housing society on October 8.
Vaishali’s daughter Swati (33) was found unconscious on the top floor of the nine-storey building almost an hour after the blaze was doused. She was declared brought dead at a hospital. She is survived by her husband Girish Garg (34), a manager at a multinational company, and a four-year-old daughter.
Family friend Rishi said Vaishali had sustained brain damage when she suffered a cardiac attack during treatment at a hospital, where she was admitted soon after the rescue. “We shifted her to Artemis Hospital two days ago. Her kidneys stopped working and she was put on dialysis. Later, the CT scan revealed irreparable damage to her brain. The doctors recommended putting her on ventilator support but the family decided to take her to Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh. She was admitted to the Civil Hospital on Friday morning and breathed her last in the afternoon,” said Mr. Rishi.
Mr. Rishi said Swati’s father and uncle had died in an accident several years ago.
“After the deaths of the mother and daughter, only Swati’s grandfather, who is nearly 90, is alive in the family. It is difficult to say whether he will be able to survive the double blow,” added Mr. Rishi.
Meanwhile, residents of the tower where the fire broke out have returned home. Some of them said they were unhappy with the measures taken by the builder and that “no lesson was learnt despite the double tragedy”.
