Couple, three minor daughters killed in fire at Kanpur building

The bodies of Mohammad Danish 45, his wife Nazneen Saba, 42, were found from the fourth floor at around 1 am, while those of their daughters – Sara, 15, Simra, 12, and Inaya, 7, – were found on the same floor around 6 am, said Additional DCP (Central) Rajesh Srivastava.

It took firefighters several hours to gain access to the fourth floor, officials said, adding that the victims were taken to the Ursula Horsman Memorial Hospital, where the doctors declared them brought dead.

Police said the neighbours noticed huge flames and thick smoke emanating from the building on Sunday night and alerted the fire department and police.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Seesmau) Manjay Singh said a probe is on to determine the cause of the fire.

Preliminary probe suggests that the fire started in the basement and engulfed the first and second floors before being noticed by the neighbours, the ACP added. “Initial suspicions point towards a possible short circuit or faults in the internal wiring, potentially originating from the floors where the shoe factory was operating,” the ACP said.

“The fire led to blasts in a couple of domestic LPG cylinders that worsened the situation,” he added.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams were also called to help the firefighters in the relief operations to extinguish the blaze completely, said ACP (Colonelganj) TB Singh.