Kirari fire: Close shave for woman, daughter and her niece

Had 24-year-old Pooja not rushed to the top floor and shouted for help when a blaze ripped through her house in Kirari area on Monday, she along with her three-year-old daughter and niece would not have survived the fire in which four of her family members died. Nine people, including three children, were killed in the massive blaze that ripped through the three-storey residential-cum-commercial building in outer Delhi's Kirari area in the early hours on Monday.

"I was sleeping when I saw smoke coming in my room. First, I came to the balcony and asked where the fire broke out and people said in our building only. At that time, I got scared and went to the terrace and shouted for help. Thankfully, my neighbours heard my cries and they got a wooden ladder to rescue me and my daughter (aged three) and Saumya (her niece, aged 10)," Pooja, who was still struggling to come to terms with the incident, said. Saumya sustained 15 per cent burn injuries, she said.

"My in-laws were old and they could not come to the terrace to save their lives. When I reached the terrace, people were shouting and asking each other to call police and fire brigade. I was crying and called my husband to inform him about the incident," she said. Pooja's husband Amarnath Jha, who works as an accountant in Jhandewalan area, was not in Delhi when the fire ripped through the house and had left for Haridwar to take a dip in the Ganga river.

Amarnath said his brother died due to cancer in January this year. "I had lost my elder brother Vaidyanath in January this year and now another tragedy has happened with my family. I went to Haridwar to take a holy bath in the Ganga river after my brother died due to cancer. I left my house at around 5.30 pm on Sunday and around 12.15, my wife Pooja called me, but her voice was not clear. Later, my other relatives informed me about the incident.

"I was worried and nobody was ready to tell me what happened to my family. When I reached Delhi today (on Monday) at around 10.30, I got to know that I have lost my parents and sister-in-law. This is the second tragedy in my family in 2019. On December 31, it was my elder brother's death anniversary," he said. As soon as Pooja saw smoke, she reached the terrace and called her husband who could not hear her voice clearly. After learning that a fire had broken out at his house, he rushed to Delhi to be with his family.

Those killed were identified as Ram Chandra Jha (65), the building's owner, Sudariya Devi (58), Sanju Jha (36), Guddan, Uday Chaudhary (33) and his wife Muskan (26), their children Anjali (10), Adarsh (7) and six-month-old Tulsi, the fire services official said. Pooja's sister-in-law Sanju, who also died in the fire, used to work in Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in Rohini Sector-22. Her mother Guddan came to visit her three-month-ago, she said.

The cause behind the fire is being investigated. It is suspected that the fire started due to a short-circuit which led to a cylinder blast and the subsequent collapse of a wall of the building.