A 54-year-old man was charred to death at his house in North-east Delhi’s Bhrampuri early on Wednesday while his wife and two children escaped with minor injuries. Police said they were all asleep when the fire broke out. Since they were trapped from all sides, they could not come out until fire tenders arrived. Cops are trying to ascertain the reason for the fire breaking out.
According to fire officials, they received a call regarding the incident at 2.37am soon after which two fire tenders were pushed to action. When the fire could not be doused within the next hour, another fire tender was pushed to action and the fire was doused by 4 am.
Police said fire broke out at the third floor of a building, but moments after it broke, it spread to the fourth floor, where the victims live. The man who died was identified as Satpal. The other victims were identified as Satpal’s wife Jayshree (48) and his children — Pooja (16) and Himanshu (17).
Police said they received a PCR call soon after which they reached the spot and rushed the rescued persons to Jag Pravesh Chandra hospital where Satpal was declared brought dead and the others critical.
They were said to be out of danger later in the day, when they narrated the incident to the cops.
They said they had gone to sleep around 12 am in two separate rooms and around 2.30 am they heard people calling out their names. As they opened their eyes, they started choking as smoke engulfed the house in no time. They said that they tried running to the main entrance but could not even open the door as it was jammed. Soon enough they started dropping unconscious one after the other.
locals in the area told the cops that they tried helping the family by pouring water at the building but all their efforts went in vain. Before they could do much the fire tenders reached the spot and rescued the family members.