Lucknow, Apr 16 (PTI): Two children were killed in a massive fire that gutted a slum cluster in the Vikas Nagar area here, police said on Thursday.
Rescue teams and residents trawled through the site reduced to ashes from the blaze the evening before.
The state government announced Rs 8 lakh in compensation to the family of the deceased.
The bodies of the two children were recovered late Wednesday, hours after the devastating fire, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Deeksha Sharma said.
“The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem. Their parents have been informed,” she told reporters.
The two victims were Shruti, aged two, and her two-month-old sister, officials said.
Police said the parents of the deceased children are from Kashipurwa village in Barabanki district.
The fire, which started Wednesday evening in a slum cluster near the Ring Road in Vikas Nagar, rapidly engulfed over 200 shanties and reduced residents’ belongings to ashes. Hundreds of people, mostly domestic workers and daily wage earners, were left homeless.
Sharma said fire tenders were rushed to the spot immediately after the fire was reported.
District Magistrate Vishakh G on Thursday said the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained as a fire safety audit was still underway.
He said a preliminary assessment by the revenue team is being carried out to provide financial assistance to the victims. Vishakh told PTI that the deceased’s family would be provided Rs 8 lakh as compensation.
Officials said more than 30 LPG cylinders exploded in the fire, intensifying the flames, while smoke from the blaze was visible from up to 10 km away.
As a precautionary measure, around 20 nearby houses were evacuated.
Firefighting operations, involving nearly 20 fire tenders, continued for about five hours before the blaze was brought under control, with electricity supply in the area temporarily cut off.
The rescue effort went on till late into the night.
By Thursday morning, the area presented a grim picture, with ashes and charred household items bearing testimony of the devastating inferno.
The displaced residents were seen sifting through the debris in search of salvageable belongings. Some families were shifted overnight to temporary shelters, while others spent the night in the open on vacant plots nearby.
The state government has provided an ex gratia assistance of Rs 4 lakh each for the two deaths, an official statement said.
MLA Om Prakash Srivastava met the girls’ family and handed over the cheques, it said.
Teams from the municipal corporation and RERA distributed food packets at the incident site.
Relief efforts are being carried out on a war footing, with medical and other essential services being provided to the affected, officials added.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is Lucknow MP, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed their grief at the incident and called for immediate relief and a thorough investigation into the fire. PTI KIS CDN ABN VN VN
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
