Two children were charred to death in a fire that gutted about 30 shanties in a slum in Navada village here on Saturday.
The administration has announced a relief of `1 lakh to the families of the victims, identified as Suba Rao, 5, and Sangeeta, 3, city magistrate Kanchan Sharan said. The two children were asleep when the fire broke out and their parents could not rescue them.
“Their bodies were recovered after we extinguished the fire,” said fire station officer Somdutt Sonkar.
“Around 11.30 am we got a call. Four tenders were rushed to the site at Navada. It took an hour to extinguish the fire,” he said.
The fire is suspected to have been started from a cooking gas cylinder.
Four large LPG cylinders and 60 small ones were recovered from the debris. It appears that most families had two cylinders which exploded in the fire. Hearing the sound of explosions, villagers and residents from nearby residents rushed there.
The administration will give `2,000 to each family whose shanty was destroyed in the blaze.
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Ganga activist climbs tree near pm house
New Delhi, March 31: A man, claiming to be an activist of the Save Ganga movement, climbed a tree near Prime Minister’s residence here on Saturday evening demanding Manmohan Singh’s intervention in the matter.
The activist climbed the tree at around 7.30 pm and shouted slogans, fire brigade officials said.
Fire brigade was called and after much cajoling he was brought down. He was handed over to the police.
Meanwhile, Delhiites on Saturday joined millions of people across the globe to observe the Earth Hour by switching off electrical appliances for an hour to pledge support to combat the threat of global warming.
Several shopping malls, hotels and major markets also observed the event marked across major cities of the world annually to pledge support for protecting the environment.
The Earth Hour is celebrated across major cities of the world on the last Saturday of March annually. — PTI