JOIN USAround 11 am on Monday, 12-year-old Muskan had put on her school uniform and was all set to leave for school.
Before stepping out, however, she paused for a second and decided to check her mails. She took out her newly purchased laptop and switched it on.
A student of class 7 in Kendriya Vidyalaya AJCR, Muskan was sitting outside her first-floor room verandah, engrossed completely in the computer screen, when suddenly she heard a loud noise coming from downstairs.
As she looked down, she saw flames reaching towards her, forcing her to run for cover leaving her laptop behind.
“I heard a man screaming from downstairs that their gas cylinder has exploded, and we should run out. My first instinct was to run towards the stairs and use them to emerge safe out of the burning house. As I reached near the stairs, the flames and smoke had completely engulfed the path, making it impossible to use them,” said Muskan.
Five persons were trapped on the first floor of the house when the fire broke out.
“I, my mother, my aunt and a woman and her six-month-old baby was on the first floor when the incident happened,” Muskan added.
Seeing the path blocked with fire, they decided to take the risk of jumping off on the ground from balcony.
“When we saw down from the balcony, we noticed a car parked just below us. We decided to jump off from the balcony on to the roof of the car lest the fire would have consumed all of us,” said Aasma, mother of Muskan.
One by one, all the five jumped off the balcony. Even the infant was tossed on the car from a height of around 10 metre where a man safely caught him in his arms.
“Barring some scratches and bruises, fortunately, we received no major injury. Even the kid was fine. However, I couldn’t find my laptop,” Muskan rued.