6-month-old among 9 killed in Kirari fire tragedy

New Delhi: Nine people, including three children died in a fire at a three-storey residential-cum-commercial building in Kirari area on Monday morning. The incident comes days after 44 people were killed in a massive fire in a four-storey building housing illegal manufacturing units in north Delhi's congested Anaj Mandi area on December 8. The Delhi government announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the Kirari fire and Health Minister Satyendra Jain said the government will also bear the expenses of the injured and give them Rs 1 lakh.

Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services said that eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the first call was received at 12.30 am about a fire at a house. The ground floor of the building housed a godown for clothes while the other three floors were residential. "Due to a cylinder blast on the second floor, a part of the building collapsed. Three charred bodies were found and 10 people were rescued by DFS," said Garg. The main gate of the building was locked from inside.

Those killed were identified as Ram Chandra Jha (65), the building's owner, Sudariya Devi (58), Sanju Jha (36), Guddan (they lived on the second floor) and Uday Chaudhary (33) and his wife Muskan (26), their children Anjali (10), Adarsh (7) and six-month-old Tulsi were living on the first floor. In the Kirari fire incident, three people were rescued. Pooja (24) and her daughters Saumya (10) and three-year-old Aaradhya jumped to an adjacent building to escape the blaze, a police official said. Most of them died of suffocation said an offical.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) SD Mishra said that they have registered a case in this regard. "We suspect that the fire started from the ground floor where bundles of clothes were kept. The cause behind the fire is being investigated. It is suspected that the fire started due to a short-circuit ." The family of one of the deceased told Millennium Post that they suspect foul play in the incident. Ram Chandra Jha had rented out the ground floor to one Vijay Singh Katara. Guddan is the mother-in-law of one Ram Chandra Jha's son, according to officials who said that Uday Chaudhary was a tenant. Pooja's husband and Ram Chandra Jha's son Amarnath Jha were in Haridwar to complete some rituals after his brother's death. DFS director Garg said that in the morning they got the wrong information about the fire which hampered the rescue operation.