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A call was received at 5:22 pm about a blaze in a house in the Shahdara area, fire officials said.
‘Five fire tenders were pressed into service and the blaze was doused by 6:55 pm. Rubber material like wipers and a rubber-cutting machine kept in a house on the ground floor of the building had caught fire,’ said Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg.
Police and fire officials rescued six people from the building and rushed them to GTB Hospital, he said.
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They were taken to the hospital in a PCR van, he said.
After fire officials reached the spot, they rescued three more people, including a child. Those who were rescued were in a semi-conscious state and were rushed to GTB Hospital, where doctors declared four of them dead on arrival, he added.
Two women, aged 28 and 40, a nine-month-old girl and a 17-year-old boy died of suffocation. A 16-year-old girl and a 70-year-old woman are undergoing treatment, according to police.
‘The building has four floors with a single staircase. Legal action has been initiated against the building owner, Bharat Singh. He had kept the ground and first floor for himself and had given the remaining two floors on rent. Further investigation into the matter is underway,’ the officer said.
The police said multiple teams have been formed to investigate the case. Forensics experts were also called to the incident spot to collect samples to ascertain the actual cause of the fire.
‘Teams of forensic science visited the spot after the incident. They will visit again on Saturday,’ Said the officer.
Only a week ago, six people, including four women, were killed in a fire that broke out in a multi-storey building in northwest Delhi’s Pitampura.
Those killed in the incident, which took place on January 18, were from three different families.