Capital saw three different fire incidents within 12 hours claiming three lives including a 13-year-old girl and a pregnant woman; Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visits one of the spots
In three different incidents of fire reported from different areas of the Capital within 12 hours, three people, including a 13-year-old child and a pregnant woman died, while three others received critical burn injuries on Saturday. The incidents were reported from south Delhi's Malviya Nagar, outer Delhi's Sultanpuri, and southeast Delhi's Sriniwaspuri area.
The Sultanpuri fire, which claimed two of the three lives, that of a girl and a pregnant woman, broke out in the Budh Vihar locality at 4.40 am. The deceased were identified as Anjali, 28, and Aditi, 13. Senior fire officials said the fire apparently broke out due to a short circuit in the house, where a wedding function had concluded just the previous day. It took fire officials more than two hours to douse the blaze.
"A lot of material was stashed in the house as a wedding had been organised just a day before. The fire apparently broke out following a short circuit and a woman along with a girl were burnt to death as they could not escape. There were no other family members at the house at the time of incident. Both victims sustained critical burns and were rushed to hospital, where the woman was declared dead on arrival while the girl died during treatment," a senior officer from the Delhi Fire Services said.
The other incident, reported from south Delhi, took place around 3 am on Sunday. Fire officers said their control room received an alert at 3.53 am that a godown in Begumpur locality of Malviya Nagar was on fire. As many as 25 tenders were rushed to the spot but the fire had already gutted more than 20 scrap godowns located nearby. It took the authorities two hours to douse the blaze, while the cooling process continued till morning.
"Two men were found trapped inside the gutted godown. They were identified as Ashok Kumar, 50, and Malkan Singh, 46. They were rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where Kumar died during treatment. He worked as a hawker and used to live in a shanty on a plot adjacent to a nearby mosque. It appears he died of suffocation and burns," a senior police officer said. It is being checked whether the fire safety precautions were in place or not, fire officers said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the spot and inspected the gutted godowns, besides meeting the families that owned the destroyed building.
The third incident that left two injured was reported at 8.20 pm on Saturday, when a gas cylinder exploded in a shanty on the Gurdwara Road in Sriniwaspuri. Police said the two victims were preparing dinner when the incident took place, leaving them with critical burns.
STATE COMPENSATION
The Delhi government has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to a person killed during the fire that broke out in a godown in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. The government has also offered Rs 25,000 for each affected household. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the site, said: “The government will take care of rehabilitation of the victims and will also provide aid for their treatment.”
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