85-year-old dies in fire at Delhi’s Dwarka home

At the time of the incident, the victim, Sadhan Chander, was alone at home and his family was away at the local market

An 85-year-old man was killed in a fire that took place in a three-bedroom flat of an apartment building in west Delhi’s Dwarka on Friday night, police said.

The fire also spread from the seventh floor apartment to the flat right above it on the eighth floor. (Representational image/ HT Archive)

At the time of the incident, the victim, Sadhan Chander, was alone at home and his family was away at the local market, said M Harsha Vardhan, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka). By the time he could be brought out of the flat, he had suffered burns and was declared dead at a hospital.

The DCP said that since no foul play has come to light so far, no police case was registered. “We have initiated inquest proceedings,” said the officer.

While the DCP said that the trigger for the fire was yet to be ascertained, the fire department said that it was likely due to short-circuit in the air-conditioner.

The police said that Chander retired from the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). He lived in a flat owned by his daughter and son-in-law, police said. The family lived on the seventh floor of the Mass Apartment in Sector 10 of Dwarka.

The fire department received a distress call at 8.26pm on Friday. Nine fire tenders were sent to the spot, said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Service (DFS).

“We began fighting the fire from the outside the building as well as from the inside. The apartment building had a fire fighting system in place which we used,” said Mukul Bhardwaj, station officer of Dwarka Fire Station.

The fire also spread from the seventh floor apartment to the flat right above it on the eighth floor. “While there were no occupants inside that, some of their belongings were destroyed in the blaze,” said Bhardwaj.

By the time the firefighters controlled the blaze to enter the rooms on the seventh floor flat, it was too late. “An elderly man was found with burns in one of the rooms. It seems that due to his age, he couldn’t escape in time,” said the official.

It took over an hour for the firefighters to douse the fire.

The DCP said that a forensic team was called to the spot to determine the cause of the fire.