Couple, sons dead in fire at Chhawla house in southwest Delhi
Officials said the main door of the house was locked, leaving victims unable to locate the keys to the door amid heavy smoke and causing their deaths due to suffocation
New Delhi

A couple and their two sons suffocated to death from smoke that engulfed their first-floor house due to an inverter fire in Chhawla, southwest Delhi, early Tuesday, officials of the fire department said.
Officials said the main door of the house was locked, leaving victims unable to locate the keys to the door amid heavy smoke and causing their deaths due to suffocation. They also tried to break a window near the entrance with a hammer, but failed to do so.
Atul Garg, chief of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), said the fire broke out around 3am and the family called them around 3.30am, following which two fire tenders were sent to the spot. “We found that the fire started from the inverter in the house and spread to the sofa on the first floor. The four persons on the first floor had inhaled a lot of smoke. We pulled them out and sent them to RTR Hospital,” Garg said.
Officials said all four were declared dead at the hospital. They were identified as Heera Singh, 48, his wife Neetu Singh, 46, and their sons Chirag Singh, 23, and Lakshay Singh, 21.
A fire official, who was at the spot, said, “There was only one entrance to the house. The door was locked from inside. Heera’s body was in the hall while his wife and sons were lying in the bathroom with buckets and towels. We think they were trying to douse the fire by pouring water around them to stave off the smoke.”
The official said the house has two floors, with Singh’s elderly mother, Seeta Singh, living on the ground floor, Singh and his family living in the front section of the first floor, and his younger brother Gurmeet Singh and his family staying in the rear section of the first floor. The fire was controlled from spreading to the ground floor or the rear section, the official said.
“It was not a big fire but the family got trapped inside due to heavy smoke. We suspect they could not escape because they could not open the lock,” the official said.
Delhi Police said the main door of the house was locked from the inside and it had to be broken.
Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said, “The four persons were injured due to suffocation by smoke. All four were rushed to RTR Hospital, where they were declared dead. The site was inspected by the crime team. It seems that fire broke out due to a short circuit in the inverter at the main entrance.”
Singh’s family said they struggled for almost an hour to get the family out but could not locate the key.
Singh’s nephew, Harsh Chopra, who lives in the vicinity, said, “Heera Singh would put an additional lock on his main door because Chirag is specially abled. The family feared that he would flee the house at night or put himself in danger. So, the gate was always locked.”
“We found out about the fire around 3am because of the smoke coming from their house. Gurmeet and I rushed and tried to open the main door. We tried to call them but could not connect. We heard them scream that they could not find the key to the lock,” Chopra said.
The family said they tried to break the door with an axe but failed.
Gurmeet Singh said, “We tried everything but the fire had spread. They could not open the door and had collapsed. Heera sent his wife and children to the bathroom to use water and towel and save themselves from the smoke. But nothing worked. We thought they would survive as we had called the police and fire services by then. But it was too late.”
Heera Singh worked as a cameraman for a spiritual guru in Dwarka, Neetu Singh was a homemaker, and Lakshay worked with a private company in Noida. Heera’s mother sustained minor injuries to her hand as she stood close to the house in a bid to rescue her son and his family.

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