Seven people, including three women and two children, were killed and at least 34 injured in two separate fire incidents that took place in the East Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar and Southeast Delhi’s Sunlight Colony on Monday evening.
While six deaths were reported on Monday late night, a 35-year-old woman succumbed to injuries on Tuesday afternoon.
The fire in the Gandhi Nagar was said to have occurred due to short-circuit in wires located on plastic sheets covering the building.
In the Gandhi Nagar incident, the deceased were identified as Rajesh Goyal, Poonam and Soni Ram and the injured were identified as Naina (4), Girish (6), Krish (12), Naushad (8), Sonu Kashyap (60), Ahmad and Abbas.
In another fire incident in Sunlight Colony, two women and two children were charred to death while 22 were injured. The deceased were identified as Mithilesh Gupta (35), Mamta (28) and her two daughters Preetika (9) and Priyanka (1)
Meanwhile, on Tuesday residents of Gandhi Nagar’s Kailash Nagar area blamed it on the fire officials claiming that their neighbours could have been saved if they had responded on time.
The locals alleged
that the fire tenders reached the spot after 45 minutes of the incident.
“We called fire departments when we witnessed smoke coming out from the building…If tenders would have rushed at that time, the major fire could have been easily stopped,” said a local.
The locals also said that there were children studying in a coaching centre on the top floor of the building. However, all were pulled out on time before the incident.
Poonam was survived by his two children, Yash (9) and Channa (11) who after this incident have been orphaned as their father had succumbed to his sickness long ago.
In Sunlight Colony, Mithilesh Gupta was reported dead on Tuesday afternoon who was living in the second floor of the building with her family. However, her family members were not at home when the incident occurred.