5 die in 3 fires across Delhi
A seven months pregnant woman, a 50-year-old man and his 18-year-old son who had come to the city two months ago, were among the five people who died in separate incidents of fire outbreaks across the national capital over the last 12 hours.
The first incident of fire was reported from south-east Delhi’s Sriniwaspuri on Saturday. The fire started at around 8.20 pm from a two-floor shanty at the Gurudwara road. According to police, leakage from a gas cylinder in the first floor might have cause the fire.
“We heard a loud bang and saw the room was up in flames. My son Vasudev (50) and grandson Arjun (18), had finished preparing rice, when the gas cylinder exploded. We rushed them to AIIMS Trauma Centre, where they died,” said Vinod Mandal, the house owner.
The father-son duo had come to Delhi in search of work from Bihar’s Katihar only two months ago. Vasudev’s youngest son had returned home on April 10.
Hours after the Sriniwaspuri fire, the control room received information about another fire at a scrap godown in Malviya Nagar. Around 2.50 am on Sunday, the fire had spread to the slums in Begumpur in Malviya Nagar. As many as 25 fire tenders were rushed to the spot, but the fire had already spread to around 24 jhuggis nearby. It took fire officials nearly three hours to douse the blaze. Officials said they rushed two people – Ashok Kumar Gupta (50) and Malkan Singh (46) — to the Trauma Centre. Kumar, originally from Patna, and was employed as a guard at the godown, died soon afterwards.
The third fire was reported at around 4.40 am from Budh Vihar in Sultanpuri. Anjali (28), who was claimed by the fire, was seven months pregnant. She was sleeping in the room with her niece Aditi (13), during the fire. Anjali’s three-year-old daughter suffered 70% burns.
Anjali’s family told police that they had returned from a wedding in the family. The men of the house had stayed back, while Anjali along with her daughter and niece Aditi returned home. Her family is in the business of artificial jewellery. Police said that the short circuit had caused the AC’s compressor to explode.
Fire officials said they suspect the fire was a result of a short circuit in the airconditioner. Police said prima facie, it appears that the three could not step out of the room and must have died of suffocation. Fire officials said it took them two hours to bring the fire under control.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia visited the fire mishap site at Begumpur on Sunday. The CM announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh for the family of those who died and ₹25,000 for those whose shanties were gutted.