3 die in blaze at scrap godown in Kirti Nagar

Three, including a child, were killed in a fire that broke out in some shanties atop a scrap godown in west Delhi’s Kirti Nagar on Thursday night, the fire department said.

The deadly mishap there was followed by another unrelated blaze at a multi-storey building in north Delhi’s Rohini, just hours later, in which two persons were injured. Firefighters rescued six others, who were stuck on the terrace, in the second incident.

In the first blaze, the fire department received a call at 10.50pm and were informed of a fire at a furniture shop.

But when the firefighters reached the scene, they found that the fire was at a scrap godown, constructed over a 100 square yard plot, and the building had three shanties above it, where people working in the godown lived, said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services.

“Although we reached the spot within minutes of receiving the call, residents of nearby shanties were busy trying to control the blaze and had rescued most occupants from the shanties above. But we were told that a drunk man and a boy were still trapped inside. One local man even entered the burning building to rescue the trapped people, but ended up getting trapped himself,” said Mohit Kumar, station officer of Shankar Road fire station.

The blaze raged on due to the presence of a large quantity of plastic and foam in the godown, Kumar said.

The impact of the blaze was such that the roof of the godown collapsed in the midst of the firefighting operation.

Deepak Purohit, deputy commissioner of police (west), said when the fire was doused and a search for survivors began, two charred bodies were found inside. “One was of a man in his 20s and the other of a boy. They remain unidentified,” he said.

The authorities continued the search and found another body in a drain. The DCP said it was of the local man, Rohit (20), who worked as a driver.

“It appears Rohit got trapped in the blaze and ended up falling into the drain adjacent to the godown,” Purohit said.

He said the godown belonged to a 50-year-old man, Tony Mahto. “We have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder at the Kirti Nagar police station. Mahto is on the run, and we are searching for him,” the DCP said, adding that the trigger appeared to be an electrical short-circuit.

In the second incident, reported from a six-storey building in north Delhi’s Rohini just hours later, a 42-year-old woman and a firefighter were injured.

Garg said the call about the blaze was received at 5.35am Friday and four fire tenders were rushed to spot. Garg said the blaze began on the ground floor which is used to store and pack goods for an e-commerce platform.

Paras Kumar, the fire officer who led the operation, said the six-storey building in Rohini’s Sector 6 was constructed on a 32 square yard plot.

A woman received burns to her limbs and a firefighter, Sunil, sustained injuries to his leg while trying to break into the building. The police are probing how the blaze started.