Swati Garg, a 32-year-old woman, unfortunately, passed away in a fire at Gurugram’s Tulip Orange towers on Monday, 8 October. The shocking incident happened around 2:15 am, on Sunday night, where Swati Garg came out of her home when the smoke was all over.
It has been learnt that a small ball of fire began to spread in the electric shaft on the 1st floor of the tower B6 at 2 am. Within a matter of minutes, the fire spread to her floor. At the drop of the hat, she immediately alerted her own family after knowing that the electric panel which next to her flat would catch fire.
Her husband Girish rushed out with her 4-year-old daughter, so was her mother and a friend. In the meantime, Swati rushed to the floor and knocked the doors of all her neighbours, informing the families in all the four flats on that floor to move to upper floors. She even ran to the floors above her own flat to inform the other residents regarding the same.
As local residents and their families rushed to comfort zone to escape the fire. But Girish and Swati lost track of each other. Talking about the nightmare, Girish told The Times of India, “We first tried to go downstairs but could not go beyond the third floor. We returned to our flat because we were suffocating.”
The residents wasted no time as they quickly wrapped themselves in wet towels and rushed upstairs. “By the time we reached the eighth floor, I was struggling to breathe. The door of one of the flats opened, and I rushed in with my daughter,” he adds.
While Girish and his daughter were safe, there was no track of Swati. She had rushed to the 10th floor to find an escape but she found the door locked leading to the terrace.
When the fire brigade started the rescue operations quickly, they found Swati dead, lying down next to the door leading to the terrace around 3:30 am. She was cornered. She couldn’t call out for help, neither could she come down. She was collapsed next to the locked gate where she lost consciousness and died of asphyxiation. Evidence showed that her handprints were found on the wall. The blazing fire was put out at 4:30 am after an hour of rescue operation.
Speaking to the publication, Police commissioner KK Rao said that a case on Section 304 (culpable homicide) was lodged at Badshahpur police station against the building infrastructure and its maintenance agency.
Officials said adding that the fire was caused owing to a short circuit in an electricity meter on the first floor of the building which in turns amplified the flames to rise to the tenth floor within a matter of minutes.
Swati’s husband Girish said, “Tulip infrastructure, Apple (facility management company) and its managers and officials of DTCP who gave approval are responsible for my wife’s death, and action has to be taken against all of them.”
Swati has been widely applauded as a hero for rescuing many lives. Unfortunately, she couldn’t save her own life. Her body was taken to her hometown Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh for the last rites. May her soul rest in peace.
