Fleeing burning building,2 fall to death

Two workers fell to their death while attempting to flee a gold jewellery workshop that had caught fire in Beadonpura,Karol Bagh,on Thursday night.

Karol Bagh * Jewellery workshop staff tried to jump from fourth floor on to opposite building; 7 injured

Two workers fell to their death while attempting to flee a gold jewellery workshop that had caught fire in Beadonpura,Karol Bagh,on Thursday night. The victims Robin (25) and Debu Saas (26) had tried to jump from the fourth floor of the commercial building to the opposite building.

According to police,a short circuit might have started the blaze in the workshop,located on the second floor of the building,and the workers were trapped inside due to a central locking system. To escape,the workers rushed to the fourth floor and tried to jump to the other building. While some managed to flee,Robin and Saas fell.

Seven workers were injured in the incident,reported around 11.45 pm. The building guard called the police and the fire department.

The commercial building has around 25 shops.

The second floor caught fire,which spread to the fourth floor. We rushed to the spot as soon as we got the call. We tried to rescue as many people. Four fire tenders were at the spot and they put off the fire around 3 am this morning, a senior police officer said.

The guard of the opposite building,Bahadur,said he saw the smoke rising from the building and raised the alarm.

I was having dinner when I saw smoke,I could smell something burning. Then I saw flames on the second floor and immediately informed the guard of that building. I also called other shopkeepers. I could hear people shouting for help,they could not come out and tried to jump from the window, said Bahadur.

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Of seven injured,five are admitted to RML Hospital and two to Lady Hardinge Hospital.

Sanjeev,a worker who was inside the building when the fire started,said,We were sitting inside when the fire broke out,there was smoke all over. The lights went out and it was dark,we could just see the fire. Everybody panicked as it was suffocating and we could not take the stairs to escape. To save our lives we jumped off the building. Sanjeev suffered multiple injuries,including fractures in the legs and right arm.

Neighbours said they tried to help the trapped workers escape from the burning building. We took the long staircase from the fire tenders and laid it between the terrace of the opposite building and the one on fire. It formed a bridge and allowed a few workers to get out. We rescued around six people like this, said Sukhram Lala,a neighbour.

A case has been registered and police are trying to identify the exact cause of the fire.

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