Ghaziabad: Woman, daughter suffocate to death after fire in 4-storey building

GHAZIABAD: A 74-year-old woman and her daughter suffocated to death while nine others were rescued after a fire broke out in a four-storey building in Loni Border early on Monday.
A fireman was also injured when the plank of a wooden door fell on him. Vinay Rathi (28), officials said, is undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Fire department officials said the families were sleeping in their rooms when neighbours alerted them about plumes of smoke billowing out of windows on the ground floor. A short circuit in a storehouse full of furniture and blankets on the ground floor is believed to have triggered the fire around 6am.
The mother-daughter duo who died were identified as Bharti Devi (74) and Mamta (40). Separated from her husband, Mamta had been living with her mother for the past few months.
Rahul Pal, the chief fire officer, told TOI they received a call about the blaze around 7am. Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot from Tronica City and Kotwali.
"By the time we reached, flames had engulfed the entire building. It was not possible to enter through the main gate. While one team fought the flames, two others started rescuing the families. Some people had already moved to the terrace," he added.
A ladder was placed on the adjacent building and those on the terrace were made to cross over. "But then, we learnt that some people were stuck on the second and third floors," Pal said.
The fire team had to break a portion of a wall on the second floor to get inside. "The staircase was full of smoke. We went inside the building after breaking the wall and rescued two persons who were stuck on the stairs near the terrace. When we went down further, there was the body of an elderly woman on the third floor (Bharti) and another on the second," Pal said.
At the hospital, doctors said Bharti and Mamta had died because of suffocation.
Initial investigation revealed that the fire started in a storehouse on the ground floor owned by Satpal, Bharti's son who is a decorator too. He used the godown to store furniture, blankets and other inflammable materials.
"Three families stayed on three different floors. They were sleeping when the fire broke out. Had someone spotted the flames earlier, maybe all of them could have come out safely," the fire officer said.
Satpal, who lost his mother and sister, said he was jolted out of sleep by neighbours. "By the time I woke up, the flames had started to reach the upper floors. I alerted the others in the building and took all of them to the terrace. All of us were rescued eventually. But my mother and sister could not be saved," he added.
ACP (Loni) Rajneesh Upadhyay said no one had filed a complaint yet. "We have sent the bodies for autopsy."
The city recorded 510 fire incidents in the first five months of this year, with the maximum number of such cases, 150, in May. April saw 124 fires; earlier, January, February and March logged 56, 86, and 94 cases, respectively.
Between January 1 and April 30, a total of 1,587 buildings were inspected in the city for fire-fighting preparedness. Of these, 670 (over 40%) were found to be lacking NOCs from the fire department.