Three of a family killed in fire in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad

The incident came to light at around 9.40pm on Monday when neighbours noticed the smoke coming out of the house

Three persons of a family, including a five-year-old girl and her 65-year-old grandmother, were killed during a major fire that broke out in Jewellary Patti locality of Kendua area, about 8 kms from Dhanbad district headquarters in Jharkhand on Monday night, officials said on Tuesday.

The deceased include a five-year-old girl and her 65-year-old grandmother.

The deceased have been identified as Saumya Gupta, daughter of house owner Subhash Gupta, her grandmother Uma Devi, and the house owner’s 35-year-old sister, Priyanka Gupta.

Suman Gupta (28), wife of house owner, her 20-month-old son, Shivansh, were also seriously injured during the incident and are undergoing treatment in a private hospital, but they are out of danger.

The incident came to light at around 9.40pm on Monday when neighbours noticed the smoke coming out of the house of Subhash Gupta, a grocery shop owner and immediately rushed to site and started pouring water from buckets and drums in fire affected house to douse the fire, while they simultaneously also called the fire department seeking their help to douse the fire.

Prakash Kumar Gupta, a neighbor of Subhash Gupta who was also partially injured in the incident, said, “I suddenly noticed the smoke coming out of the house of Subhash Gupta at around 9.40pm and immediately called other neighbors while also informing the house owner who just went out of the house after closing the grocery shop, on ground floor of his two storied house”

“Before the arrival of the fire department along with fire tender, we rescued two people from the house and took the help of bamboo stairs to reach the balcony of the house from where we entered the house,” he added.

Another neighbor requesting anonymity said, “Had the fire department reached the site on time the three lives that were lost in the incident could have been saved”

“The government ambulance, which reached the site, was in undue hurry and immediately left the site without rushing all the injured persons to the hospital,” he alleged.

Lakshman Prasad, fire officer while talking to media at the site, said “We rushed to the site within two minutes of getting information about the incidents through a local resident and rescued three persons from the fire affected house, although two persons have already been evacuated from the house by the local residents, who greatly helped us during the rescue operation.”

He, however, pointed out difficulties faced by fire department personnels in carrying out the rescue. He said the house was situated in a narrow street and fire tender had to be stationed 300 metre away from the house.