Woman killed in East Delhi building fire

New Delhi, November 14

A major fire broke out at a five-storey building in East Delhi’s Shakarpur on Tuesday, killing a 40-year-old woman identified as Anita. The Delhi Fire Service rescued 25 people to safety.

Short-circuit likely cause

• Initial inquiry revealed that the fire broke out due to a short-circuit in the parking area on the ground floor
• The fire started in the building’s parking area in the early hours of Tuesday and soon engulfed the entire structure

Lack of water, low-hanging electricity wires and the problem of onlookers getting in the way of the rescue operation made the job of firefighters trying to douse the blaze tougher.

“After getting message at 1.05 am, we initially sent three fire vehicles to the location. As the fire was major, five more fire engines were pressed into service. Later, more than 20 fire engines were rushed to the spot as the flames engulfed the entire left side of the building,” Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg said.

The major challenges the DFS had to face was that there was no water source at the spot so fire vehicles struggled to refill.

“A large number of people thronged to the location just to see that what is happening. Our teams had to repeatedly request people to give them space so that they could rescue people and rush them to nearby hospitals,” Garg said.

“Low-lying electricity wires, electricity lightings due to Diwali festival and narrow streets were other major problems we faced during our rescue operation,” the DFS chief said.

He added that another major problem the fire department could have faced was traffic. But since the Shakarpur incident happened late at night, there was no traffic on the street, Garg said.

Initial inquiry revealed that the fire broke out due to a short-circuit in the parking area on the ground floor. According to the police, the fire started in the building’s parking area in the early hours of Tuesday and soon engulfed the entire structure.

Around five people jumped from the balcony in panic to save their lives. A man, Naresh Nagar, suffered a fracture in his leg after jumping off the first floor of the burning building.

Police have registered an FIR in connection with the incident and launched an investigation.