'I jumped on next building's terrace to save myself', recalls Shastri Nagar fire survivor

Eleven others suffered burns.Two-and-a-half-year-old Iafra, who lived with her parents Aqib 24 and Shifada 24 on the first floor of the building, is undergoing treatment at GTB hospital and her condition is turning critical, her relative told PTI.Recollecting the harrowing incident, neighbours said they woke up to blaring sirens of fire extinguishers and screams of people calling for help.

''I jumped on the terrace of the adjacent building to save myself from the raging fire,'' recalled Babita, one of the survivors of the Shastri Nagar fire that claimed the lives of two children and a couple on Thursday.

As fire blocked the entrance of the four-storey building, survivors had to run to the terrace and jump on the terraces of adjacent buildings in a desperate attempt to escape the blaze. ''When we saw the fire flames, we called the police and tried to escape. However, due to the high flames and smoke, we couldn't go downstairs. So we ran towards the building terrace. From there we jumped to another building to save our lives,'' Babita told PTI.

Manoj (30), his wife Suman (25), and their two nieces aged 10 and seven years died after a massive fire broke out in a residential building in the Shastri Nagar area of Delhi's Shahdara in the early hours of Thursday. Eleven others suffered burns.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Iafra, who lived with her parents Aqib (24) and Shifada (24) on the first floor of the building, is undergoing treatment at GTB hospital and her condition is “turning critical”, her relative told PTI.

Recollecting the harrowing incident, neighbours said they woke up to blaring sirens of fire extinguishers and screams of people calling for help. ''We woke up to the noise of sirens and people screaming and realised one of the buildings in our lane had caught fire. There was complete chaos. People were trying to extinguish the fire with buckets of water but it had little to no effect as the flames were huge,'' said Jyoti, who lives in the same lane in Geeta Colony. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said they received a call around 5.20 am about the fire. The Delhi Fire Services was informed immediately and a local police team, nine fire tenders, ambulances, and PCR vans were rushed to the spot.

The priest of a temple, located about 100 metres away from the building, said the fire continued to rage till 6 am when he arrived to offer morning prayers.

It took about two hours to douse the fire that started from the parking lot, police said.

An official at Dr Hedgewer Arogya Sansthan hospital said 15 patients were brought to the hospital. Four of them were declared dead and four others were referred to GTB hospital in critical condition.

According to the police, Aqib, Shifada, Prashant (28), Yashoda (36), Jagrit (9), Bulbul (27), and Rajni (28) are being treated in different units of the hospital.

Meanwhile, Iafra, Baby (32), Nandu (25), and Rakesh Kumar (34) have been referred to GTB hospital.

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