Dhanbad high-rise fire: All charred bodies identified

All 14 people who were charred to death in the devastating fire in a multi-storey building in Jharkhand's Dhanbad were identified on Wednesday and the bodies were handed over to the family members after post-mortem examination, officials said.

Of the 18 injured people, 16 were discharged from a hospital and two are still admitted there.

Altogether 14 people - 10 women, three children and one man - were charred to death on Tuesday after a major fire broke out on the second floor of 'Ashirwad Tower' in the Joraphatak area, around 160 km from the state capital Ranchi.

The bodies were kept in a mortuary at Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College and Hospital, a district official said.

Photographs of the bodies were pasted on a wall of the hospital and relatives of the deceased were asked to identify them.

The family members initially found it difficult to identify them as the bodies were badly charred but later they did it with the help of pieces of jewellery and, in a few cases, dresses, officials said.

Prof (Dr) UK Ojha, head of the medicine department of the health facility, said that ''one of the bodies was identified based on the deceased's sari''.

The bodies were handed over to the family members after conducting post-mortem examinations.

The 18 injured people were admitted to a nursing home near 'Ashirwad Tower' on Tuesday.

''Most of them had faced suffocation problems. Fourteen were released at night. Two are still under treatment," said a doctor of the nursing home situated near 'Ashirwad Tower'.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Singh said the rescue operation was completed late on Tuesday.

"The multi-storey building has been cordoned off, and investigations are on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire," a district official said.

Bank More Police Station Officer-in-Charge P K Singh said initial reports suggest that a curtain caught fire from the flames of an earthen lamp in one of the flats of the building.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais and Chief Minister Hemant Soren expressed grief over the incident.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)