New Delhi: At least 14 people, among them fire fighters and Delhi Police personnel, were injured when an LPG cylinder exploded during a blaze inside a building in northwest Delhi’s Majlis Park on Sunday morning.The fire broke out around 9 am on the stilt floor, where vehicles were parked and household items were stored.The police have registered a case of negligence. When TOI visited the spot, shattered glass lay scattered across the narrow lane outside the blackened building. Local people said the fragments flew in all directions after the explosion, injuring bystanders.Deepika (32), who lives on the upper ground floor with her software engineer husband Ravi and their child, said: “Most of us were asleep. We suddenly smelled smoke and rushed downstairs. My husband and I grabbed our child and began alerting neighbours. The moment we reached the ground floor, there was a huge blast.” Deepika suffered minor injuries to her forehead after windowpanes shattered from to the impact of the blast.The family also runs an LED business, and several glass sheets stored in the stilt area added to the damage when these cracked and scattered.On the floor above, KP Singh (50), a govt employee, lives with his wife Gulab Devi (50) and their daughter Shikha (26). Devi told TOI, “Around 8.30am, I sensed something was wrong and stepped out. The lift had stopped working and the staircase was filled with smoke. We somehow managed to make it out.” As residents scrambled to safety, fire and police personnel began rescue and attempted to douse the flames. Some local people were trying to remove a parked car when the LPG cylinder on the upper ground floor exploded, causing severe burns to several responders.Among those critically injured were leading fireman Suresh Pehel (57), fire operator Sitaram Meena (29), and fire officer Ved Prakash (50), all posted at the Wazirpur fire station. Pehel suffered nearly 30% burns and was taken to Safdarjung Hospital along with the other injured police personnel, including ASI Sandeep (49) and constable Rahul (31) of Adarsh Nagar police station, and SI Prem Pal (54) posted with PCR, north zone. Among the injured people were Deepak Goel (40), Sher Khan (32), Rajesh (39), Jagdeep Singh (54), Vishal (40), Rahul (43), Pankaj Aggarwal (52), and Pooranchand. The burns they sffered ranged from 8% to 30%. Standing outside Safdarjung’s Burns Ward, Pehel’s brother Rajesh, who had travelled from Haryana, said: “In his 30 years of service, this is the first time he has suffered injuries of this severity. We have established businesses back home, but he chooses to continue serving in the fire department and he is just three years from retirement.”Ved Prakash’s uncle, Zile Singh (70), said: “He has been with the fire services for nearly two decades. This is the first time he has been injured in the line of duty.”Locals suspect a short circuit, possibly in an e-scooter may have triggered the blaze.
