New Delhi: “Had it not been summer vacations, more people would have been home and the death toll could have been much higher,” said 38-year-old Rizwana, standing outside the charred building in southeast Delhi’s Tughlaqabad Extension where a fire killed three persons and injured five this Friday.The smell of smoke still hung in the air as residents gathered around the blackened structure Saturday, waiting for police to allow them inside the locked building to assess the damage. Rizwana’s elder sister, 40-year-old Shabana, who lives here with her husband and three children, has gone to their village in Bihar when the fire broke out.Another resident, 30-year-old Mohan Prasad, had a narrow escape — he left for Ajmer with his wife just hours before the blaze. They were near Jaipur when Prasad received a call from a neighbour around 3am about the fire and returned to Delhi.As workers shifted goods out of the plastic godown on the ground floor, residents questioned the presence of commercial establishments in the residential building, including a two-storey clothing store with a rear entrance. They also pointed to similar godowns operating in other residential buildings in the narrow lane.They blamed the cramped stilt parking area, packed with two-wheelers, for the quick spread of the fire. “All stilt parking areas here operate the same way. We were not aware of any electric vehicle parked in our building,” said 33-year-old Surajbhan, who was visiting his ailing father in Rohini with his wife and six-month-old baby when the fire broke out.Several other families also happened to be away. While Zabi, a father of three daughters aged six, eight and 13, was attending his sister’s wedding in Ayodhya, several members of his neighbour Ram Nath’s family were also there. “Only my brother and I were at home. My wife, two children, sister-in-law and two nieces have gone to our hometown Ayodhya for summer holidays. We survived by jumping across to the neighbouring building through a window,” Nath said.While 35-year-old Prakash Mandal, whose flat was on the second floor, managed to rappel his way down a saree, thrown by a 16-year-old neighbour, his wife and two children were at their village for summer vacation.All residents said they had moved into the building around two years ago after buying flats from two builder brothers, who had redeveloped the property around that time. Many had taken loans to fulfil their dream of owning a home. “Our insurance agent has told us we will receive some compensation, but we still don’t know how much,” said Prasad.Among those waiting outside were 42-year-old Neetu Devi and 48-year-old Radhe Shyam Srivastav, who lived on the fifth floor and escaped with their three daughters, aged 22, 20 and 17, after a neighbour cut open the iron grille on their window. “We were shouting for help for a long time, holding on to our daughters. We can never forget the horror of that night. None of us knows whether we will ever be able to move back,” Neetu said.
