Four of family charred to death in Dilshad Garden

Four members of a family of six and their pet dog were charred to death when a fire broke out in their house while they were sleeping on Tuesday early morning. The deceased include an eight-year-old boy and his mother.

Two other women members of the family were injured in the blaze, cause of which is still unknown. The deceased are identified as Pradeep Jaiswal, 55, Rajan Jaiswal, 33, Soni, 28 and Anshul Jaiswal, 8.

“They perhaps died due to suffocation.Teams of crime, CFSL and fire brigade are investigating the incident separately. Prima facie, the cause of fire looks short-circuit, however, we will also see if a foul play was involved,’’ said Ajit Kumar Singla, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East) “A case of mischief by fire with intent to destroy house under section 436 and causing death by negligence under section 304A of IPC has been registered in Seemapuri police station,” the DCP added.

The incident happened in Northeast Delhi’s Dilshad Garden area’s M-block at the dry-cleaning shop cum house of Pradeep Jaiswal, an employee of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

“Around 5 am, I woke up to a sound of loud shout coming out from near the park. When I came out of my house, I saw tall flames coming out through the house of Mr Jaiswal and rising skywards. An autorickshaw driver along with some dairy workers were trying to douse the fire by brining buckets of water from the nearby park and throwing them on the fire,’’ said Anil Dogra, a neighbour.

Immediately a fire call was made, but according to the neighbours, the fire tenders which should have arrived within 10 minutes — as the fire station is only 1.5 km away from the incident spot— didn’t turn up for at least 40 minutes.

“Soon the entire neighbourhood was out of their houses, and most of them were trying to douse the fire by pouring in water from different sources. In the meanwhile, one of us went near the door of the house, and called for the members. Rajan, the son of Jaiswal answered from inside that they were all huddled up inside the house but are not been able to find the keys of the door lock,’’ Dogra added.

Seeing Rajan’s voice, neighbourhood people started to break the door with hammers and rock which they had assembled near the house. One door of a separate room, where the mother-daughter duo of Saroj, 50, and Saijjal, 25 were trapped was opened rescuing the two from near death.

The colony people were, however, unable to break the back door of the house where the rest of the four members were trapped.

Around 5.40 am, six fire tenders arrived at the spot, and with the help of equipments the backdoor of the house was broke opened.

“After the fire came in control, four of them trapped inside were taken out and sent to the nearby Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. Where they were declared brought dead,’’ said a police officer.

Saroj and Saijjal were also taken to the hospital where Saijjal has been discharged while Saroj is still under treatment. Her condition is said to be critical.

Out of the memory of eight-year-old Anshu Jaiswal, a student of class-2 in Greenway Modern School, the school management has decided to remain the classes till 5th standard closed on Wednesday.