Smoke, panic, deaths in Shastri Park

Six people were killed and five injured in a fire that broke out in a congested four-storey building occupied by around three dozen people in northeast Delhi's Shastri Park on Friday morning, police said, adding that prima facie the cause appeared to be a mosquito coil that toppled onto a mattress, setting it ablaze, on the ground floor.

- Shiv Sunny

Police said the upper floors of the largely non-ventilated building were soon engulfed in dense smoke.

"The toxic fumes left the occupants unconscious, and some of them died," deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said, adding that a case of causing death due to negligence was registered at Shastri Park police station. The officer said that there was no immediate reason to suspect any foul play.

For several minutes after the fire broke out around 8am, relatives and neighbours wearing clothes and masks drenched in water made valiant efforts to rescue those trapped inside, eyewitnesses said. Eventually, they said they were able to save 15-18 people, while six occupants (from five families), including a three-year-old boy Hamza and a newly married couple, Dinesh and Nisha, who were expecting, succumbed to the smoke. Police identified the other dead people as rickshaw-pullers Pashirul and Fazlu Choudhary and a sixth man, Zahiuddin, whose details are yet to be ascertained. Police said that two of the five injured continue to be hospitalised for burn injuries while three others have been discharged.