Retired IAS officer (80) dies after AC blast triggers fire at Hauz Khas home

New Delhi: An 80-year-old retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer lost his life while his son had to be hospitalised after a fire broke out following an AC blast on the ground floor of their three-storey residence in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Enclave late on Wednesday night.

Dhanendra Kumar, who served as India’s executive director at the World Bank board in Washington DC, succumbed to severe smoke inhalation early on Thursday morning while undergoing emergency treatment at AIIMS Trauma Centre. His son was also rushed to the hospital. He is under medical supervision and is out of danger, doctors said.

Police received an emergency call regarding the blaze at 11.18 pm. Local cops and Delhi Fire Service (DFS) responded immediately to the crisis. Two fire tenders were dispatched under the command of station officer Mukul Bharadwaj.

Preliminary findings indicate that the blaze was triggered by a sudden, powerful blast inside the indoor unit of an AC. The resulting flames spread quickly, engulfing the ground floor, where Kumar and his son were present, and igniting wooden window frames on the first floor.

Two family members and a domestic worker were also in the house at that time. Before the fire tenders could reach the spot, neighbours and PCR personnel pulled the retired bureaucrat and his son out of the smoke-filled house. The two were rushed to AIIMS under the care of attending doctors.

Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by 12.20 am, and a final ‘stop message’, confirming the completion of cooling operations, was issued 30 minutes later. A police team alongside electrical inspectors of a discom inspected the house on Thursday morning to conduct a comprehensive forensic examination of the gutted AC unit and the internal wiring of the building.

Statements from eyewitnesses and people present in the house were recorded. While an intensive electrical inspection is still underway to determine the exact technical malfunction that might have led to the explosion, no foul play is suspected at this stage.

Earlier this month, a devastating fire tore through a residential building in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, claiming the lives of nine people. A malfunctioning AC sparked that blaze, as well, police said.