NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old entrepreneur who had taken charge of his family after losing his father to cancer two years ago was among three people killed in the devastating fire that swept through a residential building in southeast Delhi’s Govindpuri on Friday.The blaze also claimed the lives of his grandmother and younger sister, while his mother and another sister remain hospitalised.Pankaj, affectionately known as “Kuku” among relatives, died along with his maternal grandmother Sushila Devi (70) and younger sister Soni (20) after a fire broke out in a five-storey residential building in Govindpuri in the early hours of Friday.His mother, Guddi Devi (50), who is speech-impaired, and younger sister Mani (18) are undergoing treatment and are said to be in a critical but stable condition.For relatives gathered outside Safdarjung Hospital, the tragedy has deepened a loss that began two years ago when Pankaj’s father, Subhash, died after battling cancer.“Pankaj was everything for the family. After his father passed away, he took responsibility for the household, his sisters’ education and all expenses. Whatever the family needed, he managed it,” his maternal uncle Suresh Chand Pandey (50) told PTI.According to family members, Pankaj ran an online mobile accessories business, taking orders over the phone and supplying products to customers. Relatives said his earnings funded the household and supported his sisters’ future plans.Pandey said the family had shifted from Prahladpur to the Govindpuri flat in November 2024 after Pankaj fulfilled his long-cherished dream of buying a home.“He always wanted to own a flat. Every month, he paid the instalments himself. It was a modest two-bedroom flat, but he was proud that the family finally had a place of their own,” he said.His elder sister, Soni, worked as a designer, while Mani was pursuing a website development course.“They were studying and moving ahead in life because of him. He wanted them to stand on their own feet,” Pandey said.Relatives said the family had also recently started discussing the future and marriage plans of the two sisters.“There was no rush, but the family had started talking about their future and marriage prospects. Like every parent, they wanted to see the girls settled,” a relative said.A PCR call regarding the blaze was received at 2.31 am. Police suspect that the fire could have originated from an electrical short circuit on the ground floor, where several two-wheelers caught fire, filling the building with thick smoke.Pandey said the family learned about the tragedy hours later.“We kept calling everyone, but none of the phones was connecting. Then we learned what had happened. We first went to the house and later came to the hospital,” he said.Residents claimed that many families living in the building were away on vacation, which may have prevented a higher death toll. They also said neighbours played a crucial role in rescuing trapped occupants before firefighters arrived.On the top floor of the building, another family narrowly escaped.Deepak (28), his wife Mumtaz (24), and her sisters Seema (18) and Kareena (16) were among those rescued through adjoining terraces and balconies.“I was in Agra helping a friend. We had already decided to shift to a smaller house on the second floor nearby because the top floor becomes unbearable during the summer. Some of our luggage was already packed,” said Deepak, who works as a rider with an online service platform.According to relatives, Mumtaz had invited her younger sisters, Seema (18) and Kareena (16), to stay with her before Deepak’s planned trip out of town.“Deepak was supposed to leave, so Mumtaz called her sisters over for the night. They lived nearby with their parents in Govindpuri and happened to be in the flat when the fire broke out,” said Javed, Mumtaz’s uncle.Speaking from her hospital bed, Seema recounted the moments when the smoke engulfed the building.“We were trapped on the top floor and moved to the balcony because it was very suffocating inside. Neighbours kept shouting from below that we should reach the roof and jump across to the next building,” she said.Seema said her sister briefly went back into the flat in an attempt to save her pet cat.“My sister loved her cat. After making sure we were moving towards safety, she tried to look for it. But it was completely dark inside the flat, and the smoke was very dense. She could not find the cat or bring it out,” Seema said.She further recalled the struggle to escape. “When we finally pushed it open, the heat was so intense that the rod stuck to our hands. My sister suffered severe burns on her hands. After reaching the neighbour’s roof, they took us downstairs and put us in an ambulance. After that, I blacked out,” she said.(With inputs from agency)
