Narrow lanes and an anarchic parking situation led to the delay in firefighting operation and the death of two people from a family in Shahdara area according to the locals.

Following a fire breaking out at a house in the east Delhi locality's Bholanath Nagar early Friday, a 16-year-old boy and her mother died while four of their family members got injured. Public blamed the delayed arrival of fire engines for the deaths albeit the cause of coming late was attributed to narrow lanes and haphazard parking by the firefighter.

Manish Kumar, the father of the two children who were rescued, said, "The fire vehicles came late due to which two persons lost their lives.” Another neighbour, Shobhit Gupta, said the fire brigades came late because of the vehicles parked in the narrow lanes of Bholanath Nagar.

 "The fire vehicles reached here after 1.5 hours. By then both the floors were engulfed in fire," he said. The cause of the fire is suspected to be the short circuit but the police are probing the matter.

A firefighter said that Delhi Fire Service received an emergency call at 5.24 am and within minutes, six  fire tenders were sent to the location. Vehicles were significantly delayed due to narrow lanes and haphazard parking, he admitted. "The delay was a key factor in the loss of life of my family members," said Hariom Gupta, a relative of Kailash Gupta, one of the several of a family injured in the fire.

Hariom said even though the fire trucks were very close to the house, they could not get through because cars were parked all along the narrow lanes. "Big fire engines were sent back and smaller ones took more than 20 minutes to reach the location," he said. A 42-year-old woman and her 16-year-old son were killed in the blaze that, according to prima facie reports, erupted due to a short circuit in an AC.

DCP Shahdara Prashant Gautam said that on checking inside the flat, bodies of the mother and son were recovered. "The charred bodies of 42-year-old Shilpi Gupta and her son Pranav Gupta were recovered from the house," a police officer said.

The injured, including the owner Kailash, his wife 70 year old Bhagwati Gupta, their son 45 years old Manish Gupta and Manish's son 19 years old Parth, are undergoing treatment in the Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) hospital.

“Two minor siblings who were rescued during the firefighting operations were discharged after the treatment,” Gautam said, adding that Shilpi and Pranav were Manish's wife and son. Currently, Manish is in a critical condition.

The police revealed that the reason behind the death of the woman and her son is asphyxia. The forensic team was also called at the spot.

Moreover, a fire also broke out in a building in Southwest Delhi’s Sagarpur in the early hours of Friday. “There is a building situated at Sagarpur’s Kailash Puri Extension belongs to one Manoj Singh. At around 11.17 pm information received regarding fire broke out in the building. The police team immediately reached the spot and evacuated the surrounding buildings,” a senior police officer said. 

He added that a total of 25 fire tenders reached the spot and at around 3 am the fire was completely controlled. “No casualty happened. Although, all the material stored in the building burnt. There was some damage in the building situated just opposite the alleged building. The fire department has not provided a reason for the fire yet.  A legal action will be taken against the owner of the building accordingly,” another officer said.

Additionally, a fire broke also out at a three-storey paper and ink godown in Dwarka's Kailashpuri area. No one was injured in the incident but the godown was gutted in fire, a police officer said, adding that the blaze also spread to a adjacent to it.

A DFS official said a call regarding the incident was received at 11.10 pm on Thursday and 21 fire tenders were pressed into service. It took around three hours to control over the blaze. Locals told police that lot of chemicals were kept in several drums inside the godown which was being used to keep paper and ink. Due to this the blaze spread all over the building rapidly.

Police said the fire is suspected to be caused due to a short circuit but further probe is underway.