New Delhi/Indore | Devastating fires in Delhi and Indore on Wednesday killed 17 people, many of them children, and gutted several shops in busy markets in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, triggering panic and large-scale firefighting operations.
Authorities rushed teams to contain the flames and rescue those trapped, ordered probes into the incidents and announced financial compensation for the victims.
In the national capital, nine members of a family, including three children and a 70-year-old woman, were killed after a massive fire tore through a multi-storey residential-cum-commercial building in southwest Delhi's Palam area.
Three others were injured, two of them jumped from the building at Ram Chowk Market near Palam Metro Station in a desperate attempt to escape the flames.
The building housed a cloth and cosmetic showroom in the basement, ground and first floors, while its owner, Rajender Kashyap, lived on the second and third floors with his family.
Neighbours said the fire initially started on the first floor but spread quickly, possibly due to the presence of perfumes and other beauty products in the shop that are highly flammable.
At the time of the incident that occurred around 7 am, several family members were not present in the house. Rajender was in Goa, while one of his sons and his family were away on a vacation, officials said.
Rajender's wife Lado, 70, their sons Pravesh, 33, and Kamal, 39, Kamal’s wife Ashu, 35, and their three daughters aged 15, six and three were killed in the blaze. Rajender and Lado’s daughter, Himanshi, 22, and daughter-in-law, Deepika, 28, also died in the fire.
Anil, 32, the third son, dropped his two-year-old daughter from the third floor while trying to lower her onto the second floor, where there was access to a ladder. Soon, he too jumped. Both sustained injuries and are undergoing treatment, officials said.
The couple's fourth son, 29-year-old Sachin, who jumped to an adjacent building also sustained injuries and is being treated for around 25 per cent burn injuries at Safdarjung Hospital.
Around 30 fire tenders and 11 ambulances were pressed into service, along with personnel from the police, BSES, Air Force Police and the NDRF, as part of a massive firefighting and rescue operation.
Visuals from the scene showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing out of the building and rising into the sky, with flames engulfing parts of the structure as firefighters battled the blaze in the congested market area.
The fire was doused around 2.20 pm, and a cooling operation began after that.
Eyewitnesses described the frantic rescue efforts by locals who tried to break windows and even a wall from an adjacent building to reach those trapped inside, but dense smoke hampered access.
Some residents alleged delays due to technical issues with firefighting equipment, though officials have not confirmed this. The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
In Madhya Pradesh's Indore, eight members of a family were killed after a fire broke out at a local businessman's three-storey house following an explosion at an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging point outside the building.
Police said a car being charged outside the house caught fire after the explosion, and the flames spread rapidly to the building.
Investigators said they found clues of 10 to 11 LPG cylinders stored at the house located in Brajeshwari Annex Colony, and explosions of some of these gas containers intensified the blaze that broke out around 4 am.
The deceased were identified as six-year-old Tanmay, Rashi Sethia, 12, Simran, 30, Tinu, 35, Suman Sethia, 60, Vijay Sethia, 65, Chhotu Sethia, 22, and Manoj Pugalia, 65.
Pugalia's close relatives were also in the house at the time of the fire, and three people were rescued by breaking the grille of the building, they said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed deep sorrow over the two fire incidents and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the PM National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 for those injured.
Modi expressed condolences to those who lost their loved ones and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
Authorities in both cities swung into action following the fire incidents.
Delhi Lt Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu, chairing his first Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting, directed a comprehensive fire audit across the city.
In a post on X, the LG office said, "Discussed today's unfortunate residential fire incident; directed a comprehensive fire audit across localities and institutions to strengthen prevention."
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who was also a part of the high-level meeting, has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and announced ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the families of adult deceased persons and Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of those who were minors and died in the fire incident.
The Madhya Pradesh government, alarmed by the incident, announced a detailed investigation into it by a committee of experts and the framing of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for EV charging.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed grief over the incident and termed it "extremely heartbreaking".
In Gujarat's Ahmedabad, a fire engulfed more than 25 shops in a wholesale cloth market in the Kalupur area, though no casualties were reported, officials said.
The blaze was reported at 1.35 pm, and around 36 fire tenders were sent to the market, Revdi Bazaar, Chief Fire Officer Amit Dongre told PTI.
The fire, whose cause was not immediately known, spread quickly due to the large quantities of clothes stored in the shops, according to Dongre.
Meanwhile, in Chandigarh, a fire broke out in a shop in Sector 22 here, one of the busiest commercial zones in the city. No casualty has yet been reported.
The fire began on the first floor of a shop and spread to the adjoining shops.
An official said more than 15 fire tenders were pressed into service, and more may be deployed. Fire engines have also been called from Mohali in Punjab.
The official said the presence of some chemicals in one of the shops increased the intensity of the blaze.
The market is a hub of mobile phones and other electronic items and sees a heavy footfall of customers every day.
Jodhpur | The driver was burnt alive after a tanker transporting an inflammable substance overturned and burst into flames on a stretch of National Highway-68 in Rajasthan's Jalore district on Wednesday afternoon.
The incident took place around 2 pm near the Sinwada overbridge in Sanchor area, with flames spreading up to 200 metres along the road following the accident, causing traffic disruption on one of the carriageways.
According to police, the tanker, bearing a Gujarat registration number, was travelling from Barmer towards Gujarat when it lost control and overturned, spilling its inflammable contents which immediately caught fire.
Due to the slope of the overbridge, the liquid substance flowed downhill, causing the fire to spread rapidly, police said.
The deceased has been identified as driver Sukhram Meghwal, 34, a resident of Gudamalani in Barmer district.
He was trapped inside the vehicle and burnt to death in the tanker's cabin.
His cousin, Narsiram Meghwal, 26, who was accompanying him, managed to jump out of the tanker in time and survived, while sustaining injuries. He was rushed to a hospital for treatment.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Sanchore) Pramod Kumar said the nature of the inflammable substance which was being transported by the tanker is yet to be ascertained.
"We are trying to find out what substance was being carried in the tanker. We are also waiting for the survivor to be in position to speak, though, he had boarded the ill-fated vehicle enroute," Kumar said.
On receiving information, police and administrative officials rushed to the spot and diverted traffic to the other side of the highway.
A fire tender was rushed to the spot and blaze was controlled in an hour.
The flames were so intense that it triggered panic among passing motorists, many of whom stopped their vehicles at a safe distance.
A large crowd gathered at the accident site soon after the tanker overturned.
According to sources, the tanker may have been carrying ethanol, and was enroute to Kandla in Gujarat from Punjab's Bathinda. Another driver who was part of the journey had reportedly disembarked earlier at Gudamalani.