The Hindu : Four of a family perish in fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 22, 2002

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Four of a family perish in fire
By Prashant Pandey

NEW DELHI, MARCH 21. An old man crippled by paralysis, his two daughters-in-law and an 18-month-old grandson were killed when a fire broke out in their ground floor shop and spread to their first floor house in Sarojini Nagar Market here today.

The smoke billowing out of Shop No. 120 -- in which cosmetics and hosiery items were stored -- was noticed by a passer-by around 7-30 a.m. He raised an alarm, following which the members of Narain Das Wadhwa's family living on the first and second floors above the shop woke up.

Sons of Narain Das -- Himanshu and Manoj -- and his nephew Gulshan, along with other family members and domestic help rushed downstairs and opened the shutter. By this time the fire had engulfed the shop and the flames spread to the first floor, blocking the common staircase.

``Ritu, wife of Gulshan, was coming down the stairs and might have been saved but she went back to fetch her son Sunny and both died,'' said a police officer later. Ritu's sister-in-law, Devika, was also killed along with Narain Das.

Narain Das, suffering from paralysis, had returned home only yesterday after spending a long time in hospital.

The fire brigade deployed 15-odd tenders to douse the flames and it took them nearly two hours to control the blaze.

Police said the number of casualties would have been less had the service roads not been barricaded to stop heavy vehicles from getting into the market. ``About 20 minutes were lost in removing the barricades for the fire tenders to reach the shop.''

Preliminary investigations indicated that an electric short-circuit might have caused the fire.

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Four of a family perish in fire