An 85-year-old man was killed in a blaze that occurred in a three-bedroom flat of an apartment in west Delhi’s Dwarka on Friday night, said police.
The victim, Sadhan Chander, was alone at home while his family was away at the local market, said M Harsha Vardhan, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka).
By the time he could be brought out of the flat, he had suffered burns and was declared dead at a hospital he was rushed to.
The DCP said that since no foul play has come to the fore so far, no police case was being registered. “We have initiated inquest proceedings,” said the officer.
While the DCP said that the trigger for the fire was yet to be ascertained, the fire department said that it was likely due to a short-circuit in the air-conditioner.
Police said that Chander had retired from the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). He lived in a flat owned by his daughter and son-in-law, who retired from the telecom sector, said police. The family lived in the seventh floor of the Mass Apartment in Sector 10 of Dwarka.
The fire department received a call about the blaze at 8.26pm on Friday upon which they sent nine fire tenders to the spot, said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services (DFS).
“We began fighting the fire from outside the building as well as from inside. The apartment building had a fire fighting system in place which we used,” said Mukul Bhardwaj, station officer of Dwarka Fire Station.
The fire also spread from the seventh floor apartment to the flat right above it on the eighth floor. “While there were no occupants inside that above flat who needed rescuing, some of their belongings were destroyed in the blaze,” said Bhardwaj.
By the time the fire fighters controlled the blaze to enter the rooms on the seventh floor flat, it was too late. “An elderly man was found with burns in one of the rooms. It seems that due to his age, he couldn’t escape in time,” said the official.
The flames dousing and cooling process took over an hour and the entire seventh floor flat was destroyed even as the flat on top of it too suffered damages.
The DCP said that a forensic team was called to the spot to determine the cause of the fire.
