'I won't survive, beta', said man feared dead in Delhi building blaze in 'last' call to son

New Delhi: “I won’t survive, beta. I am going to die of suffocation.” These were were the final words Dilip Singh (62) uttered to his son in a 43-second phone call, moments before he reportedly succumbed to a massive fire that engulfed a building in the Rithala area of Rohini.

Four people died and three others were injured in the fire that ripped through the four-storey building housing multiple manufacturing units, police said on Wednesday.

A senior police officer said the victims’ bodies are yet to be identified and will be handed over to their families after the DNA sampling process is completed.

Dharam Singh (32), who believes his father Dilip Singh is among the deceased, recounted his final conversation with him.

“I got a call around 7.40 pm (on Tuesday). My father said ‘a fire has broken out in the factory, son. I don’t think I will survive’. I thought it was a minor fire and asked him to leave the building immediately,” Dharam Singh told PTI.

Dilip Singh worked as a supervisor in a factory that manufactured tissue paper. He worked with the unit for the past over seven years, and lived on the fourth floor of the building that also housed parts of the factory. His family, including his wife, a 33-year-old daughter, and another son aged 29, live in Uttam Nagar.

“My father told me that the workers had already left for the day, and there was no one around to help him. He was old and couldn’t run down the stairs fast enough. The building had only one entry and exit point. There was no way out,” Dharam Singh said.

The call ended abruptly after Dilip Singh told his son that he was feeling suffocated.

Dharam Singh said he hung up in panic to call a factory worker for help, hoping someone would reach his father on time.

“I regret cutting the call short. I wish I stayed on it longer. Maybe I could have calmed him down or figured something out,” he said.

Dharam Singh held the owner of the building and the factory owner responsible for the loss of his father, as there was no fire safety equipment and just one entry-exit door.

“There were no fire extinguishers, no alarms, nothing. Had there been even the basic safety equipment, maybe my father and others could have been saved,” he claimed.

“My mother hasn’t stopped crying. We don’t know how to move on. My father went to work like on any other day but never returned,” he said.