3 children among 9 killed in blaze at outer Delhi house

A cylinder blast ripped through the building in Inder Enclave near Prem Nagar after the fire broke out shortly after midnight.

Three children were among nine dead in outer Delhi’s Kirari on Monday as a massive fire broke out at a three-storey building, the ground floor of which was being used for garment storage, in the second inferno in the national capital this month after a blaze claimed 44 lives in Anaj Mandi.

New Delhi, India - Dec. 23, 2019: Family members of the victims are seen outside the three storey residential-cum-commercial building where a fire broke out last night killing nine people, at Kirari, in New Delhi, India, on Monday, December 23, 2019. (Photo by Amal KS / Hindustan Times)(Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

A cylinder blast ripped through the building in Inder Enclave near Prem Nagar after the fire broke out shortly after midnight, sending cracks through the residential-cum-commercial complex and killing people aged between three months and 65 years from two families, the police said.

Five of those who died belonged to a family that resided in a small room on the first floor. The other four dead and three injured people were from the second family that owned the building. They lived on the first and second floors, the police said.

While SD Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said the fire may have been caused by short-circuit in an electric board in the warehouse, some relatives of the deceased tenants alleged foul play. They accused one of the survivors of setting the house on fire in a bid to usurp the property constructed over a 50-square yard plot.

The incident comes a fortnight after a massive blaze at a five-storey building that housed illegal factories in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi left 44 people dead.

Monday’s blaze occurred in an unauthorised colony where several houses are being used as manufacturing units for goods such as helmets, fans, garments and plastic items. This led to a blame game between the Delhi government and the municipal corporation.

The DCP, however, said that no commercial activity was going on in this house. “It was only being used as storage for fabrics, no manufacturing work was carried out there,” he said.

Dr PS Nayyer, medical superintendent of Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, said there were “some injuries to all the bodies” and the deaths were not just due to asphyxiation. Whether these injuries were due to the flames, a cylinder blast caused by the fire, or they were assaulted before their deaths would be known only after post-mortem examination, said the police. “No foul play has come to our notice so far, but we are investigating,” said DCP Mishra.

The relatives of the dead tenants said that they had received phone calls from a couple, who died on the first floor along with their three children, that they were trapped inside because someone had locked their room from the outside. But the DCP and fire officers said that when they reached the spot, they found the room bolted from inside.

“This family had locked itself in the room in an attempt to save themselves from the smoke,” said DCP Mishra. The police have registered a case of causing death due to negligence and of negligence with fire.

The dead tenants have been identified as Uday Kant Choudhary, 33, his wife Muskan, and their three children – Anjali, 10, Adarsh, 7, and three-month-old Tulsi. Those dead in the house owner’s family included Ram Chander Jha, 65, his wife Sudheera Devi, 58, their daughter-in-law Sanju, 36, and her mother Balmukhi Devi, 58.

The survivors are Ram Chander’s other daughter-in-law, Pooja, her daughter Aradhya, three, and Sanju’s daughter Soumya, 10. Chander’s younger son, Amarnath Jha, was away in Haridwar for the rituals of his dead older brother, Baidhnath, when the fatal fire occurred.

Firefighters said that Muskan was found dead with her three children in her arms and covered with heaps of blankets, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to save them from the dense smoke. “Three persons on the second floor, who died of burns, were completely charred,” said Ajay Kumar Sharma, assistant divisional fire officer, who led the rescue operation.

Locals said that they were first alerted about the blaze at 12.10am by Pooja. They used their submersible pumps to attempt to douse the flames. Since the main entrance of the building was locked from inside, they used a ladder to rescue three people through the terrace.

Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services, said that they received a call at 12.23am and three fire tenders reached the neighbourhood in 17 minutes from the closest fire station that is 13 kilometres away. The firefighters then had a tough time making their way through the narrow and congested lanes to reach the house. Two firefighters were injured in the operation.

The survivors and their relatives were visited by many politicians, and the Delhi government announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased. The government has also ordered an investigation into the incident.