NEW DELHI: A family of three died after fire swept through their one-bedroom flat at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation quarters in north Delhi’s Majlis Park early Tuesday.Ajay Vimal, 44, an assistant section engineer with the DMRC, his wife Neelam, 43, and their nine-year-old daughter Janvi were found dead inside their fifth-floor apartment, the bedroom door locked from within.
Neighbours were woken up around 2.30 am by the sound of glass shattering. From their balcony, they saw smoke billowing from the flat above. They ran upstairs but could not get in as the door was locked from inside. They alerted fire services and police.Officials believe the family may have suffocated to death in sleep. The bodies were found in sleeping positions, with no signs of struggle, leading police to suspect that toxic smoke from a room heaterblower may have suffocated them before it exploded.Firemen had to cut open doors to get inElectrical appliances in the room, including an air conditioner, television and fan, had melted, making it difficult to determine the exact source.Firefighters had to cut the iron door, net and wooden door to enter the premises. Inside the locked bedroom, everything was charred but the fire hadn’t spread to other rooms.Police said the in-house firefighting system of the society had worked at the time of the fire. Five fire engines and 25 firefighters were rushed to the scene after a call was received at Adarsh Nagar police station at 2.39 am. The blaze was put out by 3.30 am.A DMRC official said the fire was contained using a water pipe from the opposite building. A DFS official present at the spot said that the fire was on when they reached.Ajay, posted at Barakhamba metro station, had been with DMRC since 2006. He had been living in the Majlis Park staff quarters since 2016. His daughter Janvi was a Class 4 student at Queen Mary’s School. The family is from Ujjain with family roots in Uttar Pradesh. Ajay, the youngest of five siblings, had lost his father, a retired police officer, a few months ago.Ajay’s elder brother Manoj, a UP Police inspector posted in Aligarh, stood outside the BJRM mortuary on Tuesday, holding his sister Usha as the siblings tried to console each other. Usha, who lives in Noida, recalled visiting her brother just a few days earlier.Clutching her sister-inlaw inside their car, Usha said, “They had called us for dinner at their home on Sunday. We stayed there until midnight and even wished each other a Happy New Year.” Relatives remember them as a happy family who were known to be loving and had no disputes with anyone.Police have registered an FIR and are investigating the case with the fire department.
