Two killed in Delhi as fire from AC outdoor unit engulfs flat

Two people — a 42-year-old woman and her teenage son — died and four others from their family were injured after a fire broke out inside their apartment in Shahdara on Friday, police officers and fire officials said.
The deceased were identified as Shilpi Gupta and her son Pranav Gupta, 16. The woman’s husband Manish Gupta, 45, their elder son Parth Gupta, 19, and her in-laws Kailash Gupta, 72, and Bhagwati Gupta, 70, were also injured in the incident, fire officials said.
The family’s neighbours claimed that fire officials were tardy in responding to the blaze, but officials said that narrow lanes led to the delay.
The incident occurred early in the morning in a five-storey building in Bholanath Nagar. Officials said the outdoor unit of the air conditioner in the family’s third floor apartment caught fire, and the flames then engulfed the flat.
“We received a call about a fire incident at a house at around 5.50am. A police team and the fire brigade reached the spot, and the firemen doused the fire and rescued four persons from the house along with other residents in the building. Later, two bodies were pulled out,” deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said.
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officials said residents on the first and second floor managed to escape using the stairs, while those on the fourth and fifth floor were rescued from the adjacent building, but the Guptas were trapped due to the smoke.
“Most of the residents came out of the building by themselves but the Gupta family was trapped due to heavy smoke. They were sleeping and didn’t realise the fire had started in their home… When we reached, the wife and the younger son were still trapped inside. We immediately tried to douse the fire. They hid in different bathrooms to save themselves. However, when we tried to rescue them, we found they had already died. Their charred bodies were recovered,” a fire official said, on condition of anonymity.
Neighbours, meanwhile, alleged that a delayed response by DFS resulted in the deaths.
Manish Kumar, a neighbour, said, “We live on the fifth floor. My sons were trapped inside for almost 10-15 minutes. There was no sign of any fire official. Locals then helped us and took out my sons. The firemen came an hour later.”
Fire officials said that narrow lanes and “heavy parking” outside the building led to the delay.
“It took us some time to reach the building. But a couple of firemen were sent initially to help the residents,” the official quoted above said.