Jammu: Fire Triggers Cylinder Blast In Residential Buidling, Four Dead, 15 Injured

Jammu Fire Incident: The death toll may increase further as the rescue operation is still underway. The fire broke out apparently due to a short circuit. 

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New Delhi: A massive fire broke out in a building in Jammu's Residency Road area on Monday, leaving four people, including a child, dead and 15 others injured. The fire started inside a scrap shop on the ground floor of the building.

The death toll may increase further as the rescue operation is still underway, PTI quoted police officials as saying. The fire broke out apparently due to a short circuit. 

"The flames engulfed the entire building and some of the LPG cylinders kept inside exploded," said Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, Chandan Kohli.

The injured have been hospitalised. Residents of the building were mostly workers from Assam. 

Jammu & Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha said an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each would be given to the families of the deceased.

"Deeply saddened by the loss of lives due to LPG cylinder blast at a scrap shop in Jammu. My condolences to the bereaved families and prayers for speedy recovery of the injured. Directed the district administration to provide all the necessary assistance," Office of LG J&K tweeted.

"An ex-gratia of Rs 5 Lakh each to be given to the families of the deceased in Jammu LPG Cylinder blast incident. Ex-gratia of Rs 1 Lakh to be given to the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to those with minor injuries," it said.

A spokesperson of the Fire and Emergency Services Department said a call was received around 6.10 pm about the blaze. 

Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh also rushed to the spot to supervise the rescue operation.

"Over a dozen families were living in the building. The fire spread very fast, many of the residents could not escape immediately," PTI quoted a building resident Anwar Hussain as saying.

Another survivor, Yasmeena Khatoon, said the building residents lost everything in the fire.

"We could not retrieve anything and tried to flee the raging fire," she said. She also said that many of her relatives were either injured or missing after the incident.