Child among four killed as major fire destroys residential building in Delhi's Shahdara
Fire brigade officials said a call about a fire at a house in Delhi's Shahdara area was received at 5.22 pm following which five fire tenders rushed to the spot.
Delhi Fire News: In a tragic incident, four persons, including a baby, died due to suffocation while two people suffered burns in a major fire that engulfed a residential house in Delhi's Shahdara area on Friday evening.
According to officials, a fire broke out in a house on the circular floor of a multi-storey building in Delhi's Shahdara area, adding that a similar call was made at 5.22 pm.
“Five fire tenders were pressed into service and the fire was extinguished by 6.55pm. Rubber equipment such as windshield wipers and a rubber cutting machine kept in a house on the ground floor of the building had caught fire,” Atul Garg, chief of Delhi Fire Brigade (DFS), told news agency PTI.
Garg said police and fire brigade rescued six people from the building and rushed them to GTB Hospital.
A senior police officer said that after receiving information about the fire in the building, police personnel rushed to the spot and with the help of locals, managed to rescue three people.
They were taken to hospital in a PCR van, he said.
After the fire brigade arrived on the scene, they rescued three more people, including a child. Those rescued were in a semi-conscious state and were rushed to GTB Hospital where doctors declared four of them dead on arrival, he added.
Two women aged 28 and 40, a nine-month-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, died of suffocation. According to police, a 16-year-old girl and a 70-year-old woman are being treated.
“The building has four floors with one staircase. Legal action has been taken against the building owner, Bharat Singh. He had kept the ground floor and the first floor for himself and rented out the other two floors. Further investigation into the matter is ongoing,” the officer said.
Man charred in Mumbai market fire
In a similar incident, a man was charred in a major fire that engulfed a timber market in South Mumbai in Maharashtra early on Friday morning.
Officials said a massive fire broke out at 'Lakda Bazar' in Chor Bazaar locality of Grant Road around 2 am on Friday. They said a 50-year-old man died in the fire, which was extinguished after nearly 10 hours at around noon.
The fire brigade has classified the fire as a 'level four' (major) fire.
The deceased, whose body was found during the rescue operation, was identified as Dhanshyam Prajapati, an official said.
Giving details, an official said the flames spread to wood supplies, containers of chemicals and electrical wiring on the ground and first floors of the market and also damaged adjacent shops and hotels.
As many as 20 fire engines were deployed to douse the blaze, he said, adding that authorities had evacuated a nearby shopping center and a high-rise building as a precaution.
Besides the fire brigade, police, local officials and employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) were also mobilized for the firefighting operation.
The cause of the fire is being investigated, a spokesperson said.
(With PTI inputs)