Three men die in fire incidents across city

In addition to the Sultanpuri fire which claimed two lives, three people died in separate fire incidents in the city between Saturday and Sunday.

The first incident occurred on Saturday, when a gas cylinder exploded while two men were preparing dinner in a hut at a slum colony on Gurudwara Road, Sriniwaspuri. The victims, Vasudev and Arjun, were rushed to the Trauma Centre but succumbed to the severe burns.

In the second incident, around 2.50 am on Sunday, a fire broke out at a godown in Begumpur, Malviya Nagar. Fire officials said they rushed two men, Ashok Kumar Gupta (50) and Malkan Singh (46), to the Trauma Centre, where Kumar succumbed to his injuries.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the family of the injured and announced Rs 2 lakh in compensation for the families.

The first fire broke out inside a hut in a slum colony in Sriniwaspuri killing on Saturday. According to fire department officials, the incident took place in Gurudwara road area of Sriniwaspuri where three fire tenders were deputed.

Vasudev and his son Arjun, who died in the fire, worked as labourers. The jhuggi belongs to a man identified as Vinod Mandal, who had rented it to Vasudev, a native of Bihar.

The second fire incident took place around 2.50 am on Sunday at a godown in Begumpur, Malviya Nagar.

According to the fire department, as many as 25 tenders were rushed to the spot.

However, the fire had already spread to around 24 scrap godowns and temporary houses. It took the authorities nearly three hours to control the fire.

Fire officials said they rushed Ashok Kumar Gupta and Malkan Singh to the Trauma Centre. Gupta, a native of Patna died soon afterwards. He was working as a hawker. Police said that it appears that he died due to suffocation and burns.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari extended condolences with relatives of the victim in the Malviya Nagar fire.

As compensation, local BJP workers distributed food to fire victims from community kitchen and clothes, apart from making arrangements to give school books for local children, who lost them in the fire.