At least three people, including a 22-year-old man and two women, died while two others remained in critical condition after a fire engulfed a multi-storey residential building in south-east Delhi’s Tughlaqabad in the early hours of Friday.
The fire was reported at around 2.03 am from Galle No. 1 in Tughlaqabad, according to officials. HT newspaper reported earlier that the fire started in the parking area on the ground floor of a building consisting of a ground floor and five upper floors, before thick smoke quickly spread through the building.
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The incident comes days after a massive fire broke out at a bed and breakfast facility in Hoz Rani on June 3, in which 23 people were killed.
Residents say they were inside the building within minutes
Neighborhood residents launched rescue efforts on their own, with many local residents rushing into the smoke-filled building to rescue those trapped inside. Among them was 45-year-old Renu Bhutani, who said she was awake at the time due to her habit of watching crime dramas at night.
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“My son and I entered by going to the balcony of the building behind this building. Since this is only a two-story building and this is a five-story building, we found two wooden ladders, tied them together, and then climbed to the roof of this building, while two other people held the ladder to ensure that we did not fall. Since the roof was closed from the inside, my son had to break it with a rock. Immediately, clouds of very thick smoke hit us. We used stones to puncture the water tanks on the roof until The water can flow down the stairs, reducing the smoke, and hopefully putting out the fire.
“Then we flooded and entered the building. We rescued two girls who called us from the fourth floor, by making them escape the same way we entered, and another couple on the third floor, whom we had to rescue by breaking down the door of their apartment with a grinder. We heard two girls trapped below as well, but we could not get down to the bottom of the third floor because the smoke made that impossible. We signaled someone in the building opposite to throw over the sari, which the girls tied on the second floor. She added: “We found a fence. The balcony and we were able to go down. Fortunately, firefighters arrived at that point and took over.”
The teenager describes the frantic rescue operation
16-year-old Krishna Kashyap, who lives next door, said cries for help alerted residents and the entire area rushed to help.
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“Since my father was on night duty, my mother was awake and waiting for his return when she started hearing cries for help and saw a lot of smoke. Within minutes, the smoke not only engulfed that building but also entered our house, filling the entire alley. Many people gathered in the building on the roof. Despite the smoke, neighbors, shopkeepers and others rushed to the spot to help people,” Krishna Kashyap told HT.
“Someone on the second floor tied his wife’s sari to the balcony railing, came down and jumped. My brother was among the people who caught him and only had their hands with him. Since we live in the building next door, I was talking to the trapped people from my roof to find out where they were in the building. The problem is that there is no ventilation in this building, and in a lot of new buildings that are being constructed. This building was built within the last five years and has very narrow, cramped rooms,” he added. “With better ventilation, but it is as if the new buildings were created with the aim of utilizing as much space as possible for the living areas.”
“He was awake fortunately.”
“I live in one building, and luckily I was awake because my kids kept me awake. At around 2:00 am they said they could smell smoke. When I looked outside the building, I heard people screaming and saw thick smoke sweeping through the alley. We all ran out of the building and went to the end of the alley, where many other residents had gathered. It’s really scary, as the smoke was trapped inside the building due to its lack of ventilation,” Pushpa Devi (40), one of Residents of the area said the area.
“Many other buildings here, including my house, are built like this, and I know that if an incident like this happened in my house, my family would also be trapped and would not be able to escape. It’s not as if the fire itself is the only cause of deaths, but also the design of the building. A few years ago, a compressed natural gas cylinder store caught fire a few aisles away, and several cylinders exploded as well, but no one died in that, because the design of the building allowed people to escape,” she added. The 1 year old daughter is so scared now, I don’t know what to tell her.
Firefighters opened the locked gate to access the roof
Police personnel arrived at the scene shortly after the incident and were joined by senior officers, while four CAT fire engines, ambulances and other emergency response units were deployed.
Firefighters rescued five people from inside the building, and then climbed onto the balcony, where they opened a closed gate to rescue two girls who were believed to have taken refuge on the roof to escape the smoke.
Officials said the fire was brought under control around 3.45am and was completely extinguished by 4am.
