KARACHI: Three minor siblings died of suffocation while their parents fell unconscious on Tuesday when a fire engulfed a residential building in Lyari, officials said.

They said the first floor of six-storey Noor Manzil caught fire a couple of hours before sunrise, which blocked all exit and entrance points of the building situated in Memon Society in Nayabad area. Local people gathered after listening to screams of the building’s residents, but thick smoke had already left the occupants of the first floor unconscious.

“The area people rescued all residents of the building one after another on their own,” said Inspector Nisar Ahmed Lodhi, SHO of Kalri police station. “However, when they moved to the apartment of Umair and his family on the first floor, they found all the five members of the family unconscious — husband, wife and their three children. They moved them to Civil Hospital where the doctors pronounced all three children dead.”

The children were identified as five-year-old Amna, three-year-old Ayan and one-year-old Abdul Aziz, he said, adding that the parents were still under treatment at the health facility.

“The cause of fire is not determined yet, but apparently the incident happened due to a short circuit. Firefighters took almost an hour to put out the fire, but it had already damaged the building and valuables, including furniture and other stuff,” said the SHO.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2017