‘Brother, please save me’: UPSC aspirant among 2 killed in blaze at Vishal Mega Mart in Karol Bagh
Officials suspect the fire was triggered by a short circuit on the second floor of the showroom in Karol Bagh even as customers and staff were inside the store
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A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered at Karol Bagh police station and a formal investigation is underway into the cause of the blaze, officers said. A screen grab from PTI Video. (Source: X/ @PTI_News)Two persons were killed as a fire broke out at the Vishal Mega Mart showroom in Delhi’s Karol Bagh on Friday evening. Staff and customers were inside the showroom, located in a four-storey building, when the incident occurred, the police said.
The deceased were identified as Kumar Dhirender Pratap Singh (25) and Pawan Gautam (30).
Singh, who was found dead inside the building’s lift, had sent a WhatsApp message to his brother Virender moments before his death.
“Bhaiya, hum lift mein fass gaye hai… aur bhaiya, saans phool raha hai, kuch karo (Brother, I am stuck in the lift… I cannot breathe, do something),” Singh wrote at 6.51 pm. He again called Virender at 7.03 pm, saying — “Dum ghut raha hai bhiaya, bacha lo (I am suffocating, please save me)”.
Since then, all calls made to Singh went unanswered.
The police said that Singh, who had come to the showroom to buy clothes, hailed from Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh.
A postgraduate student of Political Science at Delhi University, he was preparing for civil service exams and had cleared his pre-IAS examination, police added.
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officers said they received a call regarding the fire at 6.45 pm. As many as 13 fire tenders and around 90 firefighters were pressed into service to bring the blaze under control.
Singh was found in the lift during the rescue operation. He was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. “His body was recovered around 3 am. It is suspected that he died due to suffocation,” a police officer said.
The police said another body, charred beyond recognition, was found inside the building during the cooling operations on Saturday.
The deceased was identified as Pawan Gautam, who worked as ‘lab testing MTS’ and was living in Rajendra Nagar on rent. His friends said he was married.
The news of Gautam’s death was first communicated to one of his close friends, Rahul, who lives in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Rahul then informed two other friends, Lokesh Kumar and Bharat Bhushan, in Delhi.
Lokesh was the first to reach the hospital and was asked by the staff to identify the body. “I identified him only through his shoes. Everything else was charred,” he told The Indian Express.
Officials suspect the fire broke out after a short circuit occurred on the second floor. The blaze is believed to have quickly spread to the upper floors and all occupants of the building had to be evacuated. An FIR into the incident has been registered at Karol Bagh police station.
(With inputs from Saanvi Sharma, an intern with The Indian Express)
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