Please save us or we'll die: Kirari victim's last words

"Please save us or we will die here." These were the last words of thirty-three-year-old Udaykant Chaudhary, one of the nine people who died in the fire in Kirari area on Monday, to his family members before he was engulfed in the blaze.

The massive fire ripped through a three-storey residential-cum-commercial building in outer Delhi's Kirari area, killing at least nine people, including three children, the second such incident in the national capital this month.

"We are trapped inside the house due to the smoke and fire on the ground floor. There is fire and the smoke is coming inside the house and we are suffocating. Please save us or we will die here. I can't open the main door of the house since it's locked from outside. Please save us or we will die here," these are the last words Vijay Kumar Chaudhary heard from his younger brother Udaykant.

Udaykant, who hailed from Darbhanga district in Bihar, used to live with his family on the first floor of the building where the fire broke out around 12:30 am.

Udaykant and his family died due to asphyxiation. Three charred bodies were found and two other persons were pulled out, who were later declared dead at the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, officials said.

An initial probe by police revealed that the main door of Udaykant's house was locked from inside.

Udaykant Chaudhary, his wife Muskan (26) and their six-months-old girl child were found lying unconscious near the door, police said, while their elder children aged 10 and 7, were found inside the bedroom.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, the deceased included Sanju Jha, her in-laws Ram Chander (65) and Sudarya Devi (58) and her mother Guddan (52).

Pooja (24), her daughter Aradhya (3) and niece Somya (10) survived the incident and are undergoing treatment at Tomar Hospital in Kirari.