Ghaziabad building fire: Two feared dead, eight rescued, says official

Two women are feared killed in a fire that broke out at a multi-storey building here in Uttar Pradesh on Monday morning, an official said.

The incident was reported from the Lal Bagh colony of Ghaziabad district's Loni area at 6:52 am, Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Rahul Pal said and added that the building houses a tent and catering service.

"They (the women) were taken to a hospital and have possibly died," he said, adding that besides them, there were eight others in the building and they have been rescued.

Teams were rushed to the site and two fire tenders from Tronica City and one from Sahibabad were sent, Pal said. "There was a major fire in the building's ground floor where works related to the tent house business were done," he said.

"There were eight persons trapped in the upper part of the building. They were rescued by breaking a wall after firefighters reached them using an external stair. When the building was further checked, a woman was found injured on the first floor and another on the second floor. They were taken to a hospital and have possibly died," the officer said.

On the cause of the fire, Pal said it seems it broke out after a short circuit in the building's ground floor. There was no one present in the ground floor during the time of the incident, he added.

Pal said a firefighter was injured in the rescue operation when an iron gate fell.