More than 40 families at Tulip Orange group housing society in Sector 69 here had a miraculous escape when a fire broke out in one of the electrical meters in the small hours of Monday.
A woman, Swati Garg, died in the blaze that had spread to the top of the nine-floor building.
Recounting the horror, Tulip Orange resident welfare association joint-secretary Rakesh Kumar, said soon after the fire broke out, the entire tower was shrouded in darkness.
The only escape route — the staircase — was filled with the toxic smoke of electrical wires, said the resident of 802.
“Though those on the lower floors managed to evacuate the building, the families on the fourth floor onwards were stuck. Due to the raging fire, the glass doors to the electrical meters in the shaft exploded. It was pitch dark and nobody had a torch to find their way out,” said Mr. Kumar.
Fearing that the smoke might enter the flats, most of the families kept the doors shut and came out in the balconies.
“Few families on the lower floor tied clothes and saris in a bid to escape. For those on the higher floors, it was out of the question and they just prayed for divine intervention. The children were wailing and everybody panicked,” he recalled.
Firemen pulled up
Though the fire engines reached after a call was made, they too were of little help since there was not enough space for their movement. “The firemen told us that there was not adequate space for them to use hoses to douse the fire. The unauthorised parking shed also restricted their movement. Also, there was not enough space to use a hydraulic lift to rescue those caught on the upper floors,” said RWA president Khushal Singh.
Swati’s husband, Girish Garg, claimed the fire extinguishers did not work and the water outlets were non-functional.
“The wiring to the fire alarms got burnt rendering them useless,” he said.
Mr. Garg also blamed the builder and the Department of Town and Country Planning for the flaws in the building plans and lack of fire safety measures leading to his wife's death. Ranjish Kumar, a resident of 402, said the security guards put their lives to risk to climb up the stairs and alerted them.
“Since it was the middle of the night, everyone was fast asleep. The guards had to kick on the doors to wake up the residents,” he said.
Mr. Kumar, however, added the guards were not trained enough to use the fire extinguishers. Varun Kumar, a resident of 302, said that the entire tower could have collapsed had the fire spread to the flats and caused cooking gas cylinders to explode. “It was a narrow escape,” he said.
Assistant Divisional Fire Officer (Gurugram) I.S. Kashyap said the fire could have been caused due to over-loading.
A First Information Report has been registered on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in this connection.
Shailesh Ranjan, maintenance head, Tulip Infratech, said: “At Tulip Infratech, we always ensure that all the necessary precaution must be followed in all our premises so that in case of any eventuality it should be immediately controlled. All the Tulip buildings have necessary approvals and NOCs from the concerned department and equipped with fire-fighting equipment”.
Meanwhile, the panicked residents of the tower B-6 left to stay with their friends and relatives. The power supply to some of the flats and the lift services were likely to be resumed by late at night.