Ghaziabad apartment fire: 12 trapped residents, including 4 minors, rescued

GHAZIABAD: Twelve people, including four minors, were trapped on the terrace of a four-storey residential building in Shalimar Garden Extension-1 on Saturday after a fire broke out in a third-floor flat. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the fire department suspected a short circuit. No casualty was reported.Rahul Pal, Chief Fire Officer (CFO), said that around 7.20 pm, the fire department received information that a fire broke out at Disha Home Apartment in Shalimar Garden Extension-1. Upon receiving the information, the officer-in-charge from Fire Station Sahibabad immediately departed for the incident site with a fire tender.“Upon arrival at the scene, it was found that the fire spread ferociously to the third and fourth floors of the building. Considering the gravity of the situation, additional fire tenders from Fire Station Loni, Vaishali and Kotwali were sent to the incident site. The fire-fighting operations were launched on a war footing. Due to heavy smoke filling the staircases and passages of the apartment, BA sets (breathing apparatus) were used to clear the way and reach the people trapped inside,” he said.“Firstly, we doused the flames on the stairs so that we could rescue the people who were trapped on the terrace. Once we controlled the fire, we covered them with wet clothes and brought them down. They were identified as Devansh (9 years), Dwarika, Prabhav (7 years), Sambhav (3 years), Lata (38 years), Omprakash (64 years), Manish (40 years), Sanjay (42 years), Naresh (50 years), Muskan (25 years), Anita Goswami (55 years), Anvi Goswami (3 years) and Tania (21 years) and were safely rescued,” Pal said.“Initial investigation revealed that the fire was triggered in the flat located on the third floor, which belongs to Ram Krishan Patel. The fire also damaged one more flat, which belongs to Ravi Goswami,” he said.