Major tragedy averted in Delhi as 40 people rescued from burning building – delhi news

A major tragedy was averted in national capital Delhi after the fire services personnel rescued 40 people from a burning building.

The call about a major fire in Krishna Nagar in East Delhi was received by the Delhi Fire Services at 2:10 am. “This time we got right information and sent adequate fire tenders. The building comprised of four storeys (ground + 3). Plastic waste material was stored in the ground floor and people were living on the upper floors, and there was only one staircase,” said Atul Garg, Director, DFS.

Fire tenders reached very quickly and started opening the exits simultaneously i.e. fighting the fire and rescuing people, Garg added.

“This time all the people went on the terrace and rescue operation was easy compared to other incidents of fire,” he said.

Delhi has witnessed a series of fire-related incidents in the last few days in which many lives have been lost. A four-storeyed shoe manufacturing factory caught fire in outer Delhi’s Narela Industrial Area on Tuesday in which three fire fighters sustained burn injuries.

At least 30 fire tenders were used to douse the fire.

A day before, three children were among nine dead in outer Delhi’s Kirari as a massive fire broke out at a three-storey building, the ground floor of which was being used for garment storage.

A cylinder blast ripped through the building in Inder Enclave near Prem Nagar after the fire broke out shortly after midnight, sending cracks through the residential-cum-commercial complex, the police said.

The incident was reported a fortnight after a massive blaze at a five-storey building that housed illegal factories in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi left 44 people dead.

The Anaj Mandi fire on December 8 was the most severe fire incident in the national capital after the Uphaar Cinema tragedy that claimed 59 lives and left over 100 injured in June, 1997.

In January 2018, an illegal factory in Bawana caught fire, and all 17 people on the premises were killed because the only door they could have used to escape was locked from outside on the owner’s instructions.

And this February 12, a fire at a hotel in central Delhi’s Karol Bagh – caused by a suspected short-circuit in a hotel that was a tinder box due to rampant fire-safety violations – claimed 17 lives.