Northwest Delhi’s Keshavpuram area wore a deserted look on Wednesday as residents mourned the death of people-friendly 52-year-old Satyabir Panchal, who after hearing a shriek from neigbourhood at 2:30 am on Tuesday, had rushed with his 22-year-old son Akshay to save a family of eight from inferno but died in harness.
Satyabir, who was in the business of selling fire extinguishers, succeeded in his endeavour and saved eight people from the blaze but lost his life fighting as a cylinder in the house exploded.
locals rushed the injured to a nearby hospital where Satyabir was declared brought dead.
“We took at least nine to ten fire extinguishers with us. Within one hour or so, we along with the help of the locals had managed to extinguish the fire. When my father went inside the building, within a few seconds, a cylinder exploded. Since the building had physiotherapy and diagnostics centre on the ground floor, oxygen cylinders were kept,” said Akshay, who survived the blaze, sustaining 10 per cent burn injury.
The death of Satyabir has left his wife, daughter, son and parents in a state of shock. Waiting outside the mortuary of the Ram Manohar lohia hospital, the women of the Satyabir family were too grieving and could not muster enough strength to talk to reporters.
“Satyabir was a kind person. He helped everyone who approached him. late on Monday, Satyabir did not flinch from helping out the family who was stuck in the blaze,” said a neighbour.
Some friends and relatives of Satyabir have demanded that the family must be provided compensation for his brave act.
The Delhi Police, meanwhile, booked the owner of the building Rajesh Gupta under IPC Sections 285, 337 and 304 A at the Keshavpuram police station.
Eyewitnesses and locals said the incident could have been averted had the Delhi Fire Services reached the spot on time.
A senior police official of the Northwest district said the locals sought help from Satyabir after the firefighters from the Delhi
Fire Service failed to reach the spot on time.
“So far, we suspect that the fire broke out in the ground floor of the building due to a short circuit and it further spread,” said the senior police officer, adding that further probe is on.