The Bhati family stayed on the first floor.Gurgaon deputy commissioner Ashok Garg Saturday said a a “high-level committee of three officials — the additional deputy commissioner, Faridabad, the DCP and the Secretary, Nagar Nigam, Faridabad — has been set up to investigate the fire incident”. He said authorities “will check fire safety standards in schools, coaching institutes and PGs, and strict action will be taken against people not complying with the rules”.
Vishal Bhati, who lost his wife and two children in the blaze and was at the spot when events unfolded, has alleged that fire officials did not do enough to save his family. “We called the fire services immediately after the blaze broke out; they arrived 10-15 minutes late in one fire tender. The firefighters came unprepared, since they had no masks or helmets. They couldn’t climb the stairs due to the smoke and because they had no equipment. After some time, firemen and police reached the first floor and took my family to the hospital,” he alleged.
Two neighbours — Mahinder Kumar (55) and Vikas Khatana (32) — also claimed the firemen were not wearing masks or helmets. They said the water pressure from the hose was low.
Read | Woman, her 2 children die trying to escape blaze in Faridabad building
However, the Faridabad Fire Service denied the allegations and said they had not been given adequate information about the incident. “We deployed 10-12 personnel to douse the fire. They (the neighbours) informed us that a fire had broken out in a house, but after reaching the spot, we realised it was a building with a school and a clothes shop. We later sent two more fire tenders. We had all the necessary equipment and rushed to the first floor and took the woman to the hospital. It took us an hour to carry out the operation and control the situation,”said Hari Singh Sain, ADFO at the Faridabad fire services.
The building is located at a residential block in Dabua Colony, with several welding shops and departmental stores around it. There are two transformers nearby.
