14 dead and 18 injured after a massive fire erupted at an apartment in Dhanbad on Jan 31

A massive fire erupted at an apartment in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand on January 31. According to the officials, a fire broke out at the Ashirwad Tower apartment under the Bank More police station jurisdiction at around 6 in the evening.

As soon as the incident was reported fire tenders rushed to the spot. Around 40 fire tenders were pressed into service.

According to the sources, the blaze erupted on the third floor of the building where the residents had a wedding at their flat. In the initial stage, several people feared being trapped inside the structure.

Panic was created among the residents due to the blaze whereas the concerned authorities were making efforts to accelerate the rescue operation while asking locals to cooperate who had crowded the structure engulfed in the massive blaze.

With a lot of difficulties, the firefighters brought the fire under control after a nearly four-hour operation.

In this incident, 14 people died whereas 18 others were injured. The injured were immediately rushed to the Dhanbad medical college for necessary treatment. However many residents fell unconscious due to the smoke emanating from the fire.

The search operation was concluded during the night and the search team rescued 21 persons from the building. After the search operation concluded the police officials cordoned off the multi-storey building. As per the preliminary information based on the conversation between police officials and the security guard of the apartment complex, an oil lamp had caused the fire. Investigations are on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire.

Note: An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund would be given to the next of kin of each deceased in the fire incident. Whereas the injured would be given Rs 50,000.