LAHORE: Six members of a family were burnt alive when a fire engulfed their four-storey house inside Lohari Gate in the dead of night on Thursday.

All members of the family were asleep when the fire erupted on the fourth floor possibly due to a short circuit.

Neighbours were first to come to the rescue of the family but could pull out only four of them.

Rescue 1122 officials said they received a call at 2am and six fire-fighting vehicles were sent to extinguish the fire. They said efforts to tame the flames were hampered owing to narrow streets of the area and it took more than 10 hours to clear the building.

Rescuers took hours to tame flames

Muhammad Shahid 55, his sister Gulshan Bibi, 70, his wife Qaisara, 35, son Ali Shahid, 12, daughter Ayesha Shahid, 17, and four-year-old Ali Imran lost their lives in the inferno.

A neighbour, Muhammad Shahzad, said the fire broke out in the house around midnight when all members of the family were in their sleep.

“I woke up to screams and saw smoke billowing from the house of our neighbours. I raised an alarm for help and many people did gather there and saw four of the family members at the fourth floor crying for help,” he said.

He said some people tried to enter the house but flames and smoke prevented them from doing so and as a last resort they broke the wall of the adjacent mosque to rescue them.

Shahzad said they rescued four people, including Imran Zafar, his wife Tehmina Imran and his six-month-old son Mudassar. Their condition was stated to be stable in hospital.

The families of Muhammad Shahid, a fruit seller, and his brother were living in the house. Shahid had constructed two shops on the ground floor and rented them out. He was living with his wife Qaisara, son Ali and daughter Ayesha on the second floor while the third floor was used as a store to keep fruits, vegetables and empty wooden crates.

Shahid’s sister Gulshan Bibi, along with her son Ali Imran and his family, lived on the fourth floor of the building.

Police teams also reached the spot to maintain law and order and oversee the operation.

A rescue officer said teams faced a lot of difficulty doing their job in the congested area that is plagued by encroachment.

An expert of the Crime Scene Unit said initial investigation revealed that the fire erupted on the fourth floor due to a short circuit. He said the fire engulfed the third, second and first floors devouring the wooden structure.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and directed the authorities to submit a report.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2016