61 students hurt as fire breaks out in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar building

The injured students either fell while attempting to climb down the building with the help of pipes and cables from the top floors, or were hurt in a stampede.

Sixty-one students were injured while trying to escape a four-storey commercial building occupied by hundreds when a fire on the ground floor a little after 12pm filled the upper storeys with smoke in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar on Thursday afternoon, police said.

Many students were injured when they fell while attempting to descend the four-storey building using ropes and pipes. (ANI)

The building, Bhandari House located in Batra Complex, is one of several commercial buildings leaning on each other in Mukherjee Nagar. Much of the business here revolves around coaching centres that have mushroomed in the vicinity. The building which caught fire is constructed over a roughly 300 square yard plot and includes a basement, ground floor, and four upper floors. At least two large coaching centres, a bunch of smaller institutes, a library, an office, and some shops are among the establishments operating out of the complex located less than 4km from the Delhi university’s North Campus.

Watch | Mukherjee Nagar fire: Shocking video of students escaping through window

The injured included mostly students who either fell while attempting to climb down the building with the help of ropes, pipes, and cables from the top floors, or were hurt in a stampede while trying to escape the smoke, police said.

“Most injuries were relatively minor. Those who fell early suffered more serious injuries, but all are likely to survive. About 11 of them will continue to remain hospitalised through the night,” said Jitendra Meena, deputy commissioner of police (north-west).

The fire department said the coaching centres in the building did not have a fire no-objection certificate (NOC), simply because no coaching centres ever applied for one.

“There is no clarity on which agency regulates coaching centres, because of which no one has ever applied for an NOC with us,” said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services.

Garg, as well as students and eyewitnesses, said that the fire began in electric meters installed along the staircase on the ground floor. However, Tata Power Limited -- the discom that supplies electricity in north Delhi -- said that on-ground team inspection and prima facie probe showed that the smoke started from the air-conditioning unit on the fourth floor, and not around the electricity meters.

A corner building, the structure was open on three sides, an important factor that provided students more escape options. However, there was only a single staircase which would’ve made a easy escape unviable for many students in an emergency, said Garg.

The DCP said a first information report (FIR) was registered under Indian Penal Code sections of 336, 337, 338, 34, and 120B (criminal conspiracy), at Mukherjee Nagar police station. Meena said while there was no evidence yet of the fire being set intentionally, it wasn’t being ruled out and investigation was in progress. He said that the legal status and licenses of the building were being verified, and forensic teams visited the spot for investigation.

Videos shot by bystanders and rescuers showed students sliding down ropes and cables through windows -- in groups of two and three -- before some of them lost control and slid down.

Sanskriti IAS coaching, on the top two floors, whose students accounted for most injured, said that the institutes in the market were equipped with firefighting systems. “Ever since the Gujarat coaching tragedy, we were required to have the necessary firefighting arrangements. That is why we were able to bring out fire extinguishers to fight the flames,” said Kumar Gaurav, a teacher at the institute. At least 20 students died and 20 others were injured when a coaching institute in a commercial complex in Surat’s Sarthana neighbourhood caught fire in May 2019.

By various estimates, there were around 500 to 700 students and others in the building on Thursday afternoon when the fire broke out. On the third floor, for instance, there were about 200 new students attending their third day of their history class, said Gaurav. “The institute has a capacity of 300-400 students, but there were around 200 when the incident took place,” he said.

“Within two minutes, I heard five consecutive blasts. Later I got to know that the explosions were in meter board near the staircase on the ground floor of the building,” said Sangeeta, a woman who works in the building but did not share the name of her organisation and her second name.

Most of the trapped students, roughly 200 of them, were on the third floor. Some escaped through the roof onto the neighbouring building, but many others panicked and began breaking the glass window panes while contemplating a jump.

The students of another coaching centre, Gurukul, in the basement, ran out at the first sign of fire, after which they saw the students on the top floors breaking window panes. “The blasts suggested it was a short-circuit. We were some 250-300 students in a batch, and all of us managed to rush out in time,” said Lovepreet Singh, a student. Minutes later, Singh and other evacuee students realised that there was trouble ahead. “We heard sounds of glass window panes on the upper floor breaking and realised students were trapped,” said Ajay Dixit, another student.

Prima facie, fire officers said, it appeared that smoke from the fire in the metre rose through the stairs to the upper floors. “The fire was relatively small. It was the smoke that caused all the trouble,” said Garg.

The closest fire station, in Roop Nagar, was 4km away, but they were informed only around 12.27pm, nearly half an hour after the fire broke out. “There was a delay in reporting the incident. We received the first call at 12.27pm. Our first batch of firefighters reached the spot in 10 minutes, but much of the rescue using ropes and cables was done by then,” said Garg.

Before the firefighters reached, students trapped inside and desperate to escape began using water pipes outside the building and thick dangling electric cables to attempt an escape. They were aided by some local auto drivers who arranged thick ropes, and later a ladder. However, panic set in as some students fell down.

“Among the first to fall was a girl who couldn’t hold on to the rope for more than a few seconds. She hit her head on the ground, and we thought she died,” said Raksha Mitra, a UPSC aspirant. The student survived the fall despite suffering a head injury, said police.

As students began landing hard, others gathered outside pitched in by piling up their bags.

A garbage picker gave sacks of empty plastic bottles and local businesses arranged mattresses and other items to save those who fell down while dangling from the rope or wire.

By the time the firefighters arrived, and took over, much of the rescue operation was over.

The injured students were sent to at least three different hospitals while the firefighters went about checking the building for any unconscious people who may have been left behind.