Five people died after a four-storey building caught fire at Tulsi Boarding Chok in Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City on Friday.

According to the police, five people from two families living in the building died when it caught fire. Two brothers, aged 14 and 16, and their 40-year-old neighbour Nazaruddin Ali and his two children—a five-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter— lost their lives in the incident.

According to family members, the 16-year-old boy, son of Hussain Baksh, rescued his mother and sister from the fourth floor of the building where the family was sleeping. He went back to the living quarters to rescue his younger brother. Both of them were found dead by the police at 7am.

Their father, Hussain Baksh, who was in Surkhet at the time of the incident, ran a footwear shop and a warehouse in the four-storey rented building. According to police, an electrical short circuit on the ground floor of the building ignited the fire.

The second floor of the building was used as a warehouse for footwear while the two top floors were used for residential purposes.

Ali, whom the Baksh family had sublet the third floor to, rescued his wife and father by taking them out through the neighbour’s terrace. He then went back up to save his children but none of them survived. All three of them were found dead in the morning, said police.

According to the Tulsipur Area Police Office Chief DSP Shyamu Aryal, all the victims died due to suffocation.

“The top two floors of the building did not catch fire. The bodies of the deceased do not have burn marks. They all seem to have died of suffocation caused by smoke and heat,” said Aryal “They couldn’t escape since the exit was blocked by fire.”

A fire engine of Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City reached the incident site soon after the fire broke out but ran out of water before it could completely douse the inferno. About an hour later, another fire engine from Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City reached the site but the fire had gone out of control by then. The delay in arranging for fire engines greatly affected the rescue operation, according to Aryal.

“There weren’t enough fire engines so the fire could not be brought under control immediately,” he said. “We couldn’t reach the victims on time. By the time a water tanker arrived to assist in dousing the fire, it was already morning.”

Personnel from Nepal Army and Armed Police Force along with the locals worked together to bring the fire under control and rescue the victims.

Chief District Officer of Dang Harilal Regmi, who had reached the incident site in the morning, said it was difficult to douse the fire since the warehouse was filled with plastic products that caught fire easily.

“Almost every room and staircase were filled with highly flammable materials, which led to the rapid spread of fire,” he said.

The Tulsipur-chapter of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry decided to close Tulsipur market on Friday to mourn the deceased.

“We are collecting funds for the bereaved families. We request the business community to come forward and help,” said Binil KC, the secretary-general of the Tulsipur chapter of the federation.