Saturday, 08 APRIL 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Kumar has ordered an inquiry into the alleged negligence and delay in rescue and relief work in Thursday’s Tyuni fire incident in which four children were charred to death. He has asked DIG Fire Service Nivedita Kukreti to submit the probe report in three days. The Dehradun senior superintendent of police (SSP) Daleep Singh Kunwar also suspended fire brigade in-charge in Tyuni along with four personnel and said that further action will be taken as per the investigation report of Kukreti. Four children were killed when an LPG gas cylinder caught fire and exploded inside a four-storey house in Tyuni area on Thursday evening. According to the officials, the house caught fire around 4 pm when one of the tenants was replacing the empty cylinder which led to leakage and subsequent explosion. As per the official claim, the fire tenders reached the spot with full water capacity of the tanks to douse the fire but due to it being a four-storey house which was mostly constructed of wood, the fire massively spread during this period. The fire tenders soon ran out of water and had to allegedly go 10 kilometres away to refill the tanks. The authorities here also contacted respective police in-charges in Mori, Uttarkashi and Jubbal in Himachal Pradesh (HP) besides State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and each sent fire tenders at the spot. Later, two more gas cylinders exploded inside the house when the fire tenders were dousing fire. This made the situation worse as despite continuous efforts, authorities failed to rescue four children who were stuck inside the house, said the officials. Many have alleged that there was a delay in dousing the fire at such a crucial time due to the alleged negligence of the fire department which led to the death of the four children. The SSP stated on allegations that strict action will be taken against the officials concerned as per the investigation report of DIG Fire Service Nivedita Kukreti who has been assigned to investigate the matter. He also informed that bodies of two out of four children were retrieved which were cremated after authorities carried out Panchnama and post-mortem of the retrieved bodies. The rescue teams were still searching the remaining bodies till late Friday evening. The police have identified the deceased children as Gunjan (10), Samriddhi (9), Adira (5) and Sejal (2). The injured are Vicky Chauhan, Bhagat, Kusum and 15-year-old Swati (15) who managed to get out of the house before the situation got worse. The officials informed that Kusum was referred to a higher centre on Friday as her condition was critical.
