Ghaziabad: Fire in multi-storey building kills two; eight rescued

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Two women, including a senior citizen, were killed in a fire at a multi-storey building in Uttar Pradesh, while eight others rescued on Monday morning, officials said.

One of the deceased was 74 years old and it is suspected she died of asphyxiation, while the other, aged around 40, succumbed to burn injuries, a police officer who oversaw the rescue and relief work told PTI.

"Both the women were members of the same family. They were taken to a CHC (community health centre) but did not survive. Their postmortem reports are awaited," Assistant Commissioner of Police, Loni, Rajneesh Upadhiyai said.

The incident was reported from the Lal Bagh colony of Ghaziabad district's Loni area at 6:52 am, Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Rahul Pal said and added that the building housed a tent and catering service in its ground floor.

The two women were found on the first and the second floors of the building and were taken to the health facility, while eight others were rescued, he said.

Teams were rushed to the site and two fire tenders from Tronica City and one from Sahibabad were sent, Pal said. "There was a major fire in the building's ground floor where works related to the tent house business were done," he said.

"There were eight persons trapped in the upper part of the building. They were rescued by breaking a wall after firefighters reached them using an external stair. When the building was further checked, a woman was found injured on the first floor and another on the second floor," Pal said.

On the cause of the fire, he said it seems it broke out after a short circuit in the building's ground floor. There was no one present in the ground floor during the time of the incident, he added.

Pal said a firefighter was injured in the rescue operation when an iron gate fell on him. The fire has been doused, the official said.

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