4 Girls Killed In Fire After Gas Cylinder Explodes In Uttarakhand Building

Four girls have been killed in a fire in a building in Uttarakhand's Dehradun district, officials said on Friday, putting the age of the children between two-and-a-half and nine years.

The building in the district's Chakrata area caught fire on Thursday evening.

The charred remains of two girls have been found, District Magistrate Sonika told PTI.

Asked about the two other girls, Sonika said State Disaster Response Force personnel could not find their remains.

The girls were identified as two-and-a-half-year-old Saijal, five-year-old Adhira, and Samriddhi and Sonam, both aged nine.

Search and rescue operations have been stopped, Sonika said and added that the area's Naib Tehsildar had been suspended.

The fire broke out in a three-four-storey building made largely of wood in which two families lived together. The families' adult members escaped to safety but the girls were left behind, Sonika said, adding it was suspected that the fire broke out after a cooking gas cylinder exploded.

The blaze was so large that it took fire personnel over five hours to extinguish, the district magistrate added.

Local residents alleged that the fire tenders ran out of water soon after the fire-fighting operation began and had to travel around 10 kilometres to refill, further aggravating the situation.

Director-General of Police Ashok Kumar has directed Deputy Inspector General (Fire Brigade) Nivedita Kukreti to look into the allegation and submit a report within three days.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has expressed grief over the incident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)