Ghaziabad: Two-storey building collapsed after fire and cylinder blast

A 32 year-old-woman died while two others, including her seven-year-old son and a fire personnel received burn injuries after a two-storey building caught fire and collapsed. The building collapsed due to explosion of two LPG cylinders in Loni’s Ikram Nagar of Ghaziabad, on Thursday morning. Police said a bakery was running on the ground floor and prima facie it appears that the building caught fire due to a short circuit. While the rescue operation was going on by fire officilas, building collapsed due to cylinder blast
According to Sunil Kumar Singh, Chief Fire Officer (CFO), the incident took place at around 1 am and a call was received at around 1:40 am by the neighbours.
“Initially three fire tenders were rushed to the spot. During the rescue operation, two cylinders blasted one after the other and one fire fighter Raghunath Prasad (49) was injured in the cylinder blast. He is admitted to Noida’s Max hospital,” said Singh.
According to police, the deceased was identified as Fatima, a native of Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh and her injured son is Aneez. She was living with her husband and four children in the house. Naveel Ahmand (34), deceased husband runs a bakery shop with his two younger brothers.
“At the time of incident, I was sleeping with my wife and children on the first floor whereas my two younger brothers Nadeem (28) and Aseem (25) were on second floor of the building,” Ahmad said.
Eyewitnesses said that all her inmates, including her four children, however managed to evacuate the building on time. The fire brigade and the NDRF team pulled out the body of the woman after four hour of the rescue operation
Sanjay Verma, SHO of Loni police station said that Layeeq (22), a worker, who was sleeping in the bakery which was on the ground floor and woke up due to the heat and immediately informed Naveel, the owner of the bakery, about the fire.
“Naveel and Layeeq rushed down the shop and tried to ablaze the fire but with few minutes the fire spread all over the shop. In the meantime, Fatima, Naveel’s wife was struck on the first floor with her four kids. In order to save her kids, she threw the kids down from the first floor during which Aneez (7) their kid got injured. Police took the child to GTB hospital for medical attention,” said Verma.
Police said that after the act, Fatima fell unconscious and when fire team tried to pulled her out, suddenly cylinder blast and building collapsed.
“When the fire was cooled Fatima was taken to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead on arrival,” said a senior police officer.