New Delhi: Two children, aged 5 and 6 were charred to death when the flat they were playing in caught fire in South East Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. Cousins Aisha (6 years ) and Zaid (5 years ) could not be rescued from the first floor of the three-storey building as it caught fire at around 1 pm on Tuesday.
Ehsan Mallik, who runs a furniture and mattress store in the basement and upper ground floor, resides with his family on the third floor.
"The children were playing on the first floor which we use as our drawing room. We do not know how the fire started on the first floor but it spread too fast for us to respond swiftly. Soon the whole building was engulfed in fire. I lost my daughter Aisha and my nephew Zaid in the fire. I am devastated," said Ehsan Mallik who was inconsolable.
Aisha was the only daughter of Ehsan among four children and Zaid was the only son of his sister among three children.
Ehsan's sister, who resides in Pansonda village of Ghaziabad, visited her brother in Shaheen bagh a few days back with her 5-year-old son Zaid. The child too choked to death along with his cousin Aisha.
Locals say that the children hid under the bed making the rescue difficult. The locals from the neighbourhood soon started the rescue much before the fire brigade arrived.
"We got ladders and made a ladder bridge from Balcony to Balcony to rescue te rest of the members. When we counted we found two children missing… later they were found dead," said Syed Irfan, a local from the area.