Noida: A 26-year-old woman, Sneha Srivastava, who was among the two dead in the Mamura paying guest (PG) accommodation fire on Wednesday, had shifted to the city from Moradabad after she bagged a campus placement at a BPO in Sector 62 about two-and-a-half months ago on completing BBA.On Wednesday, she had called in sick at her workplace and stayed back at the PG. Hours later, a massive fire engulfed the building, claiming her life.“Had she gone to the office that day, she might have been alive,” her colleague and next-door neighbour Danish told TOI, while recalling Sneha as a cheerful and friendly woman. “She treated me like an elder brother. We met daily and shared everything,” he said, adding that it was hard to comprehend that someone he had been laughing with a day earlier was gone.Danish said he rushed to the PG from his workplace as soon as he heard of the fire, but the blaze had already consumed the building by the time he arrived. He said he had kept hoping she would survive, but it was too late.Sneha’s father, Ashwini, said his daughter had big dreams and wanted to move out to a larger flat. On Wednesday morning, when the fire broke out on the ground floor of the Mamura building and smoke blocked the stairway and corridors, Sneha had called a relative and cried for help before the call disconnected. Her family said they repeatedly tried to reach out to her, but calls went unanswered. Her body was taken back home by family members on Wednesday night.
The fire broke out in a five-storey PG in Mamura
Rishabh Kumar Singh (27), who worked at EY GDS in Sector 134, was the second victim, having succumbed after inhaling smoke. A native of Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, he had been staying at the PG for about a month with a roommate Antu Kumar.On Thursday, Antu said he was at work when he received a call from police informing him of the fire and was asked to come to the district hospital to identify Rishabh’s body. He said Rishabh worked in a hybrid model and usually would be at work in the mornings, and that it was unfortunate he had stayed home on Wednesday. Antu described him as cheerful and said the two had become close friends. He said many of his own belongings were destroyed in the fire and he had to spend the night at a friend’s house.Like him, nearly 70 residents who escaped the flames spent the night in hotels, with friends, or at temporary shelters. By Thursday morning, most survivors had begun vacating the premises, removing belongings and searching for alternate accommodation, as the area outside the building remained crowded through the day with families and friends helping salvage what they could.
Residents managed to escape by climbing down with the help of a rope and wooden support
Lokesh, who lived on the fifth floor, said he barely slept after the incident and spent the night at a friend’s room, haunted by images of the fire. He said he had managed to escape by climbing down with the help of a rope and wooden support. On Thursday, he called his brother to help remove household items, including a refrigerator, washing machine and luggage, and expressed concern over the security deposit and advance rent still held by the PG operator.Ayush Dwivedi, from Etawah, had appeared for a job interview at Tech Mahindra earlier on Wednesday and returned to his first-floor room shortly before the fire broke out. He escaped with only his mobile phone and charger, while his clothes, shoes and other belongings were destroyed.Police have so far arrested the PG caretaker Krishna Kumar in connection with the fire. Another caretaker Dharmendra and accountant Srijan Das Gupta are absconding. No action has yet been taken against the building owner Dharmveer.Residents said the building, constructed around 15 years ago, lacked basic fire safety measures, including firefighting equipment and a proper emergency exit, raising questions about compliance with safety norms. Authorities said they were still probing the cause of the fire and possible negligence.
