• Source:JND
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In a tragic incident one person died after a massive fire broke out at the Vishal Mega Mart shopping centre in Delhi's Karol Bagh on Friday evening. 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot after which the dousing operation started and the blaze were brought under control in an overnight operation.

The fire was reported around 6.44 pm from the second floor of the four-storey building located on Padam Singh Road, the Delhi Police said in a statement.

The 25-year-old deceased has been identified by the police as Kumar Dhirender Pratap Singh. He was found trapped inside the lift of the shopping centre, the police officials said. Singh was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival, the police said. 

"This is a Vishal Mega Mart outlet where grocery and fabric items are sold. The fire was confined mainly to the second floor," the statement added. A total of 13 fire tenders worked to douse the flames. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, officials said.

'For three hours, officials claimed no one in lift': Deceased's brother

Deceased's elder brother Rajat Singh has alleged negligence on the part of officials. While talking to The Daily Jagran, Rajat said that he first received a call from the victim at around 6:54 pm. On call, the victim informed about being trapped in the lift and sought help. At 7:03 pm, the victim made another call to his younger brother. The victim informed that he was suffocating inside the lift. 

Meanwhile, his relatives who live in Delhi reached the site. Accoridng to Rajat, the victim was a resident of UP's Sonbhadra and was living in Delhi's Karol Bagh for his UPSC preparations. Rajat also asserted that the officials on site persistently claimed that no one was in the lift. This continued till around 9:00 pm.  

The Karol Bagh Police Station has registered an FIR in the fire incident and an investigation has been taken up, the officials said. The fire incident at the Vishal Mega Mart came a day after a blast took place in a transformer located near the Trauma Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). A Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said no one was injured in the incident.

"We received a call regarding a blast and a fire in an electric transformer at the AIIMS Trauma Centre at 3:34 pm. We rushed eight fire tenders to the spot. The fire was doused by 3:55 pm. No one was injured," DFS chief Atul Garg said in a statement. No immediate reaction was available from the AIIMS.