Delhi: Five suffer burns as fire breaks out in building; 52 others rescued

Residents said the fire started from a short-circuit in the electrical meter boards installed in the parking space on the ground floor and it soon spread to 13 parked scooters and bikes and three cars.

Five members of a family suffered burn injuries and nearly 90 residents were trapped after a fire broke out on the ground floor parking space of a four-storey residential building in south-west Delhi’s Bharat Garden near Dwarka early Monday.Over a dozen firefighters and four fire tenders took nearly an hour to douse the blaze and rescue 52 residents, including 24 women and four children, from the building.

Representational image (ANI Photo)

“The quick and timely response of our firefighters averted a major tragedy as several people were trapped in the building. We managed to safely rescue all residents. No fire safety arrangements were found inside the building that has 26 flats and is spread over a 400 square yard area. The building did not require fire clearances as these were builder floors,” said Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg. Builder floors are low-rise buildings with two to four floors.

Residents said the fire started from a short-circuit in the electrical meter boards installed in the parking space on the ground floor and it soon spread to 13 parked scooters and bikes and three cars. The flames also spread to the only staircase of the building and the elevator stopped working as soon as the electrical board went up in flames.Families living in 24 flats on the upper four floors had no way to get out and only those living in the two ground floor flats could escape, fire officials said.

“A Sikh food delivery boy who had come to deliver food to the first floor was the first to spot the blaze. He showed exemplary courage and saved the lives of more than a dozen residents by helping them down the stairs. He even used his turban to help people climb down balconies. There was so much panic that we could not even get his name or contact number to thank him,” said Amit Kumar, who lives with his family of six in a flat on the fourth floor.

Fire officials identified the five injured persons as Uttam Kumar, his wife Satita, two sons Kartik and Araf, aged 17 and 10 years, and mother Omviri. Omviri and Araf suffered 20% and 15%, respectively and are undergoing treatment. The other three had 10% burns, fire officials said. The five were injured as they tried to leave by the staircase and held on to the hot metal railing, they said.

Bhawna Singh, who lives with her husband, son and pregnant daughter-in-law on the first floor, said the fire was detected by the food delivery person who had come to their flat. She said all three iron gates on the ground floor were locked from inside and her family members were stuck in the flat as the flames and smoke were spread towards the staircase and their balcony.

“We could not get out as the fire and smoke had reached at the exit points – balcony and staircase. We locked the main door, opened the balcony door and decided to stay put, as my daughter-in-law is eight months pregnant and it was risky to climb down the balcony. Firemen came to our rescue after about half an hour. Those 30 minutes of waiting were horrifying,” said Bhawna.

Police said they were looking into the cause of the fire.