Close shave for over 100 in Pitampura highrise fire

New Delhi: Almost 100 people and a puppy made a miraculous escape after fire broke out on the fifth-floor of a ten-storey residential tower in Northwest Delhi’s Pitampura area on late Wednesday night.

“The occupants of the entire building were safely evacuated. No one was injured in the incident though a few suffered from suffocation after inhaling smoke. However, they did not require any medical attention,” chief fire officer (Delhi Fire Services) Atul Garg said. The fire department said that they received a call about the blaze at 1.10 am, following which 15 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

“A fire broke out in one of the flats situated on the fifth floor of the building and the fumes later spread to other floors,” a senior fire official said.

The fire official added that residents of the fifth floor and above rushed to the top floor while those below the fifth floor rushed outside the building. Some 100 residents of the building were safely rescued by the fire department.

Furniture and other household items were damaged in the incident, the fire official said, adding that the fire was brought under control by 3.50 am. The exact cause of fire is yet to be ascertained, they said.

This incident came a day after the fire department rescued six women and one child from a fire that broke out in a building in Southeast Delhi’s Okhla area on Wednesday.

At least seven people were rescued from the blaze that broke out at the parking lot of the six-storey building in Okhla. Mr Garg said that three cars and six two-wheelers were gutted. The building’s lift system was damaged and dense smoke engulfed four of the floors.

Around 20 men managed to jump from the roof to an adjoining building while six women and a child were rescued. “No one was injured in the blaze,” he said.

On Wednesday, the fire was first noticed at around 3.30 am, said Mr Garg, adding that a short circuit in an electric meter in the parking lot of the ground floor might have triggered it.