On Wednesday evening, Shariq, 28, left his home in Ghaziabad to buy milk for his seven-month-old son Mohammad Sheesh. Upon his return, he discovered a devastating scene: a fire had broken out at his house, the only two-storey building in the crowded Behta Hajipur lane, killing his wife Farheen (25) and their child.
Farheen’s body was found holding her baby tightly. The smoke had suffocated them before the flames reached them.
Neighbor Mohammad Rashid (32) recounted that when the smoke blocked the door, the family rushed to the terrace for safety. “Farheen was halfway up the stairs when she realized her son was sleeping in the room. She ran back and never came out alive,” he told The Indian Express.
“Jab usko bahar nikala toh bachche ko seene pe rakha tha (When they took Farheen’s body out, she had held her son close to the chest),” a woman cried.
Shariq’s family also included his partially paralyzed father and his sister Uzma, 22. During the fire, his father was at a nearby mosque for prayers. Uzma is now fighting for her life at GTB hospital, with doctors reporting she has suffered 80% burns.
Shariq’s sister Nazira, 32, her husband Saif-ur-Rehman, 35, their daughter Ifra, 7, and their son Arsh, 10, were also in the house. Only Arsh survived.
Officials suspect the fire started from a short circuit in the electric meter. A spark fell on a gunny bag containing foam cups bought for Eid, which was stored on the ground floor, igniting the fire.
The ground floor served as a garage where Shariq’s Vitara Brezza car, Pulsar motorbike, and scooter were parked. All vehicles were destroyed in the fire.
Farhan, a neighbor, described seeing smoke from the garage. “As I opened the garage, the flames were all over my face,” he said. “I screamed for help.”
Shariq, struggling to hold back tears, recalled: “I had gone to fetch milk. When I returned, I saw flames everywhere.”
Nazira had come to Shariq’s house with her children for their summer vacation. Her husband had arrived earlier that day to stay the night and take them home on Thursday.
Shariq’s other two sisters were inconsolable. “Ek aakhri baar goud mein le lene do mujhe bachche ko (Let me hold the baby for one last time),” pleaded Shariq’s sister, who had come from Muradpur.
Outside the burns unit at GTB Hospital in Delhi’s Shahdara, Mohammad Faiz, 18, a relative, waited anxiously. “The doctor told us she (Uzma) is on the ventilator and is critical. Her face and body have burnt completely. Doctor told us that the ICU ward has no space and if her condition worsens, we will have to take her to Safdarjung Hospital,” Faiz said.
Another relative, Tehseen Khan, admitted he couldn’t bear to see the bodies. “They said it is all black bones, there is nothing left to see…,” he said.
Another factor contributing to the fire’s spread was that it began at 8 pm, and for the next 42 minutes, people attempted to extinguish it themselves before a neighbor, Ishtiyaq Khan, called 112.
The fire tenders arrived at 9.12 pm.
