One dies after massive fire breaks out at residential building in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: An elderly man was charred to death while his son sustained severe burn injuries in a massive fire that broke out at the high rise residential building on late Saturday night in Loni area of Ghaziabad.

Police said that the family lived at first floor of the building which caught fire due to short circuit in the electric meter at ground floor.

According to police, the blaze started around 2 am in DLF Ankur Vihar colony of the area. The victim identified as Sunil Sagar (50), was charred to death while his 22-year-old son, Rohit received critical burn injuries and he has been receiving treatment at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital in New Delhi. Residents of the building said that the fire erupted after a nearby electrical transformer exploded which caused a short circuit in the electric meter of building. Nearly half a dozen two wheelers were also gutted in the fire which turned violent and the flames spread to upper floors of the building.

At the time of the incident, the residents were sleeping in their flats.

Flats situated at lower floors were more affected by the flames. Somehow, the residents managed to flee the smoke-filled building and tried to douse the flames but the flames turned violent.

Residents alleged negligence on the part of the fire department, saying that despite repeated calls made to the fire SOS number, no one responded for more than an hour.

They also said that such a massive impact of the fire could have been avoided if they had responded on time.

"Acting upon the information conveyed, police team reached the spot and the blaze was brought under control after nearly an hour of water sprinkling by fire tenders. An elderly person has died in the incident whose body was sent for the post mortem while few persons who received burn injuries were admitted to hospital," said Sanjay Verma, Station House Officer of Loni police station.