Trapped between ground floor fire & locked terrace door, 5 of family suffocate to death in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: A fire that likely started from a short circuit in the wiring and engulfed the ground floor turned a three-storey house into a death trap for a family. Five persons, the youngest of them a seven-month-old boy, suffocated to death waiting for help on Wednesday evening at Loni's Behta Hajipur colony.
When firefighters found their way into the house, all five were found dead near the stairwell on the second floor, their path to the terrace - the only passage to survival - blocked by a locked door and a thick layer of smoke.Shaiful Rehman (35), his wife Nazra (26), their daughter Ikra Rahman (7), Shafiul's sister-in-law Parveen (28) and her seven-month-old son Mohammad Faiz died.

Additional CP Dinesh P Kumar said two other family members, Usma (26) and Arsh (4), were rescued from the ground floor and taken to Delhi's GTB Hospital. Usma is slated to be critical.
Flames appeared to have leapt swiftly across the ground floor as fabric foam, a compressor and mould machine stored on the ground floor to make undergarment accessories, the family's business, caught fire.
A scooter and a car parked on the ground floor were also damaged.

Chief fire officer Rahul Pal said the firefighting operation was impeded because of a height barrier and narrow roads leading to the colony. "Fire engines had to take a 13km detour to reach the colony delayed the operation by nearly 30 minutes. The engines had to stop at least 500 metres ahead of the house as the roads leading to it were too narrow. Subsequently, hosepipes were laid to take water to the building," Pal said.
The CFO said the fire broke out between 8pm and 8.15pm, but the fire department was called at 8.42pm. "Neighbours initially tried to douse the fire using local resources. Once our team reached the spot, they split into groups: one led the firefighting operation and two others tried to enter the house to rescue the seven persons trapped in the house. One group of firemen broke down the main iron gate and entered the house. But as they tried to take the stairs to the first floor, a portion of the first-floor ceiling collapsed. The team then entered the house from the terrace after breaking down another iron door," he said.

A third team climbed the terrace of an adjacent building to enter the first floor where Usma and Arsh were stuck. "As there were no windows on this side, the team made three holes into the wall of the house to enter it," the CFO said.