Shivam, 11, performs his mother’s last rites in Meerut on Tuesday. (Above) Relatives of Meerut fire victims outside Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi. Pictures by AFP and Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, April 11: Meerut’s deadly fire claimed two more victims after a 55-year-old man and a 40-year-old mother of two succumbed to their injuries in Safdarjung hospital today.

The toll swelled by one more when a teenager’s body was identified by the earrings she was wearing.

As many as 27 people injured in yesterday’s blaze had been admitted to Safdarjung hospital, considered the best to deal with burn injuries. Four were sent to Kailash hospital in Noida and two to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital at ITO.

Safdarjung medical superintendent R.N. Salhan said all the patients brought to the hospital were in a critical condition and had suffered 35 to 95 per cent burns.

There was not a single official of the Uttar Pradeh administration present at the hospital to help the victims, despite claims of immediate aid. It was only in the afternoon that chief development officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, R.S. Geherwal, arrived to take stock of the situation.

Worried relatives camped outside waiting to hear news of their loved ones. Gita, a mother of two boys aged 12 and 14, died of 95 per cent burns. After her death around 1 pm, Gita’s angry relatives demanded that her body be handed over to them.

“We don’t think she had sustained 95 per cent burns as the hospital authorities made us believe; it was around 70 per cent. We had first taken her to Yug nursing home in Meerut but we brought her to this hospital as we thought she would get better treatment here,” said Jai Kumar Gupta, Gita’s brother-in-law.

Uttar Pradesh fire serviceman Vijay Pal Singh, who saved over 25 lives at the fair before he collapsed, was also rushed to Safdarjung by his colleague Jitender Kumar. “Our van reached the spot at 5.45 pm. There was a wall of fibreglass covered by tin which we cut through. Vijay saved more than 25 lives, including women and children, pulling them out of the fire,” Jitender said.

He added that visibility was poor because thick black smoke was billowing inside. “A burning fibre glass fell on him as he tried to crawl out,” Jitender said while waiting outside with Vijay’s son.

Relatives of Dr Anjali Luthra, head of department of periodontics at the Subharti medical centre in Meerut, waited anxiously outside the burns ward. Anjali, who was admitted with 70 per cent burns, had gone shopping with her daughter Mehak at the fair. Nineteen-year-old Mehak and her mother were separated in the fire.

“Anjali had gone shopping with Mehak. She managed to get out, borrow a phone from someone and called me saying that she has suffered 70 per cent burns and that Mehak was missing,” said brother-in-law Dhiresh Verma, who rushed in from Ambala.

“It was only after we reached Delhi that we found out from the media that Mehak had been found. Her friends called up and said they had identified her body from the earrings she was wearing,” he added.