Delhi Anaj Mandi fire: 5-storey building with minuscule windows, doors led to deaths

In this lane, where the ground floor of almost every building has an illegal factory or godown, this building — measuring about 600 square yards — housed many small-scale factory units.

The five-storey building, where 43 persons were killed in Sunday morning’s fire, is possibly one of the largest in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi — among whose narrow crowded lanes several structures jostle for space.

The building view of the spot where a fire broke out in a plastic factory, at Anaj Mandi (Sanchit Khanna/ Hindustan Times)

Yet, the building had only one small entry and exit, measuring not more than 5 feet wide and 7 feet high.

In this lane, where the ground floor of almost every building has an illegal factory or godown, this building — measuring about 600 square yards — housed many small-scale factory units.

Until 15 years ago, the building was an automobile service centre for a popular motorcycle brand. Before that, it was a pulses mill.

Located not more than 500 metres from Rani Jhansi Road in north Delhi, Anaj Mandi was once the perfect location to run a business. But over the years, as illegal factories mushroomed in the ground and upper floors of the buildings in the locality’s narrow lanes, the service centre shut shop.

A day before Sunday’s fire, there was another small fire reported from the area.

“What replaced the service centre was even more dangerous. The owner divided the factory within the family. Around 2004, the owner’s son and relatives — who got possession of the factory — rented space to different contractors. Multiple factories sprouted in one building. They used plastic. We could see smoke coming out from the windows sometimes,” said Fahim, a local, who lives next to the factory.

The ground floor housed a plastic frames factory. The first floor had a school bag factory. The second, third, and the fourth floor had factories manufacturing plastic toys, plastic folders and a T shirt printing unit. A police officer, who visited the building, said, “At every floor, there were 4-5 rooms, housing different small-scale factories. There were plastic and paint thinner and chemicals all around. When we went in the afternoon, the power supply had been cut off in the whole area. The building inside was completely dark. Not a speck of sunlight poured through. The building had no proper windows,” the officer said.

Most locals said that they cannot put an exact number on the number of workers working inside. Some said there could be 100-200 workers, others said there were around 400. Police said there were 63 occupants in the building, when the fire broke out.

Nasir Safi, who runs a shop near the building, said, “The workers of the building kept to themselves. Also most of them were migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Residents here are mostly those whose families have lived here for centuries. The workers were busy inside and we were busy in our own lives here outside. This is also the reason why we do not know who the dead are.”

Locals said that the only contact residents here had with the workers inside were through small windows at the back of the building from they saw factory workers stitching on their sewing machines, working on their machines, or cooking meals on their tiny stoves, every night.

Those were also the same tiny windows from where locals first heard the cries of help on Sunday morning