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LAHORE, Jan 6: Three women were burnt to death while as many people, including two children, sustained minor injuries in two incidents of fire in Yakki Gate and Factory area on Saturday.
Reports said the fire broke out at the fourth storey of a house at Havalian Ali Shah inside Delhi Gate owing to a gas heater, which engulfed the whole building besides an adjacent house.
The fire reduced goods to ashes and caused the roofs of the multi-storey houses to collapse.
Fire-brigade units, Rescue 1122 and Edhi ambulances rushed to the spot and removed the bodies from the debris.
The dead women were identified as Hameedan Bibi (50) and Naseem Begum (70). The latter was a victim of absolute paralyses. The gas heater, it was learnt, had been placed besides her charpoy to fight the cold.
One of three injured people, who were rushed to hospital, was identified as Javed.
City division SP Ahmad Hassan said that at least 40 members of eight families lived in the eight floors of two houses owned by brothers Hafeez, Majeed, Rasheed and Labha at Kocha Darzian.
He said fire-brigade units faced difficulties in getting to the spot owing to narrow lanes.
In the other fire at Factory Area, a 100-year old woman was burnt alive in her house at Javed Colony.
APP quoted police as saying that Seenati Bibi was sleeping in a room of her house when all of a sudden fire broke out. She was rushed to the General Hospital with critical burn injuries where she expired.
People of the locality gathered there and controlled the fire. The cause behind the fire was believed to be electric short circuit.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has expressed a deep sense of sorrow and grief over the fire incident inside Delhi Gate and ordered an immediate enquiry into the incident.
The chief minister directed health minister Chaudhry Iqbal to personally visit the hospital and supervise the treatment being provided to the victims. He further directed that best possible medical facilities should be provided to the injured people.
INJURED: Robbers injured a passer-by over resistance and took away cash and valuables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees in the city on Saturday.
Two robbers barged into Madina Jewellers at Hijwairi Centre in Ichhra, held up the owner and employees at gunpoint and escaped with cash and jewellery worth Rs300,000.
Two motorcyclists intercepted motorist Mrs Naseem at Cavalry Ground in South Cantonment and made off with cash, jewellery and a cell phone worth Rs150,000 at gunpoint.
Dacoits intercepted Imran in Garhi Shahu and snatched from him Rs5,000 and a cell phone. They also shot at and injured him on resistance.
