Fire Kills Nine in Delhi's Palam Building

A massive fire ripped through a four-storey residential-cum-commercial building in southwest Delhi's Palam area on Wednesday morning, killing nine members of a single family and injuring several others. The blaze, which erupted around 6:30 a.m. in a congested lane near the Palam metro station, trapped residents on the upper floors as flames quickly spread from the lower levels.

The victims included a 70-year-old woman and three of her granddaughters, one just three years old, along with other family members living above the ground-floor cosmetics and cloth business. Investigators suspect the fire started due to a short circuit in an electrical board near the building's entrance, with preliminary findings indicating that stored garments and cosmetics fueled the rapid escalation. Most deaths resulted from smoke inhalation and asphyxiation, according to police statements. The structure's narrow access, thick glass windows, and lack of adequate ventilation hindered escape, forcing some survivors, including a father who dropped his young daughter from the third floor before jumping himself, to take desperate measures.

Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes, with locals claiming the...