New Delhi: There was an eerie silence hanging over the blue-coloured four-storey building in Delhi’s Shastri Park Friday afternoon, hours after six people suffocated to death in a massive fire that was triggered by a mosquito repellant. The youngest victim was one-and-a-half-years-old.
According to police, toxic fumes that were released after a mosquito coil fell over a mattress sometime during the night and a subsequent fire resulted in the deaths. There was no fire exit in the building that housed 15 people.
Among the six who died include five tenants – a couple from Kanpur and three rickshaw pullers – and the toddler, Hamza, belonging to the building’s owners.
The house is owned by 46-year-old Akbar Ali and his brothers, Anna Ali (48), Asgar Ali (40), Azmat Ali (39), Haseen Ali (36) and Wajid Ali (45), all of whom have been living there since 2010. Tenants occupied the second and third floors of the building. The fourth floor was being used as a warehouse by its owners who own a garment shop at Shastri Market.
According to Akbar, the Kanpur couple who lived on the building’s third floor had shifted last month, while the three rickshaw pullers moved in only last week.
Family members ThePrint spoke to said the fire started on the building’s ground floor and tore through the levels above.
Akbar, who was on the ground floor when the incident took place, said he was alerted to the fire by his sister-in-law Sumaiya Begum, Hamza’s mother.
“I immediately rushed inside the room and brought out the children — 19-year-old Soni and one-and-a-half-year old Aram. Sumaila kept telling me that Hamza was also inside. But by the time I could get to him he was dead,” Akbar told ThePrint.
Akbar also said that his brother and Hamza’s father, Azmat, rushed those injured to the nearby Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital.
“I woke up to smoke all over the room. I was on the second floor. I immediately rushed out the door with my three children. There was very low visibility and even the door was hot,” 38-year-old Aliya (identified by her first name), Akbar’s sister-in-law, told ThePrint.
Talking about Hamza, her nephew, Aliya said, “I did not know he was inside. The room was filled with smoke. Nothing was visible. I wish I could have saved him.”
According to a statement released by Joy Tirkey, DCP, Northeast Delhi, a PCR call was received at 8am Friday informing about the fire in the building at Mazar Wala Road, Macchi Market in Shastri Park.
“Police rushed to the spot and found that the injured had been taken to Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital. Total nine people were involved in the incident. It has been learnt that a burning mosquito coil had fallen over a mattress sometime during the night. The toxic fumes caused inmates to lose consciousness and later death due to suffocation. Further investigation is on,” the statement read.
Two others who received injuries are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Akbar, along with his brothers Asgar and Azmat, were later brought to the Shastri Park Police Station for questioning. The bodies have been sent for postmortem to the hospital.