Three kids among 9 killed in Delhi building blaze, fire dept's response under scrutiny

A fire control room official said a call was received at around 7am reporting a blaze in a building in Gali Number-2 at Shri Ram Chowk.

Three children were among nine members of a family who perished after a blaze ripped through their four-storey residential-cum-commercial building in southwest Delhi’s Palam Colony on Wednesday morning, raising serious questions about the fire department’s response amid allegations that a faulty ladder delayed rescue operations by 90 minutes.

Plumes of smoke emanating from the fire in a building in Palam, Delhi, on Wednesday. (Sylvester Tamang/ HT Photo)

Three other family members — two who fell while being helped down by firefighters and a third who sustained burns while escaping, after allegedly waiting nearly an hour-and-a-half on a balcony for rescue — were seriously injured.

The cause of the fire was not officially confirmed till the time of going to print.

Throughout the morning, over 100 firefighters spent nearly sevenhours dousing flames, finally extinguishing the blaze at 2.20pm. The dead were identified as Kamal Kashyap, 39; his wife Ashu, 35; and their three daughters: Niharika, 15; Ivani, 6; and Jaisika, 3.

Kamal’s mother Lado Kashyap, 70; his brother, Pravesh, 33, his sister, Himanshi, 22, and sister-in-law, Deepika, 28, also died. Lado and Himanshi were completely charred. Kamal and the other six had minor burns and likely died due to asphyxiation, according to their relatives.

“The bodies of Lado and Himanshi were recovered hours later. The bodies were charred and we could only see their toes… we could not even identify them,” said Deepak Sharma, a cousin of Kamal.

A joint family of 19 members, the Kashyaps ran a popular shop selling artificial jewellery, undergarments, cosmetics, and clothes on the basement and ground floor of their 70-year-old building in Ram Chowk Market in Palam Colony’s Sadh Nagar.

One member, Sachin Kashyap, lived on the first floor, which also functioned as the godown; the rest of the family lived on the second and third floors, said police. On Wednesday, only 12 members were in the building.

Police said the fire likely started on the ground floor around 6.30am. The first call to the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) came at 6.45am, followed by a police control room call at 7.02am. The first fire engine arrived at the scene at around 7.15am. The lane leading to the spot is congested and narrow with vehicles parked on both sides. Firefighters said they had to lift up overhead cables dangling in the lane to move their fire tenders towards the building.

But relatives and locals alleged that the hydraulic ladder that could have been used to rescue the family members didn’t work till 8.30am.

Heartwrenching scenes played out as three members, including a child, begged for help from the balcony and waited for the firefighters to rescue them. One of the members eventually died.

“We could see the family members crying for help. Some of them wanted to jump from the building. But the firefighters and police personnel stopped them from doing so and assured them that they would safely rescue them. However, their fire truck’s hydraulic ladder did not open and they could not reach the third floor to rescue them. As a result, one family member, Anil Kashyap, first released his 1.5-year-old daughter towards the firemen from the balcony. But she fell on the ground and suffered fractures in her legs. Thereafter, Anil also fell on the fire truck during the rescue process and suffered head injuries,” said Yogesh Sharma, a local garment trader who was among the first to reach the scene.

HT reached out to A Nedunchezhiyan, principal director, Delhi Fire Services, whose office shared that the first Bronto truck did not work only for a few minutes.

“It takes time to park a bronto and install it in place. However, there was some minor mechanical defect which led to a delay,” said a DFS officer.

Of the three injured people, 32-year-old Anil Kashyap and his one-year-old daughter Mitali sustained fractures and head injuries as they fell from the third floor balcony while firefighters were trying to rescue them using a ladder.

Anil’s brother, Sachin, 28, saved his life by rushing to the building’s terrace using the staircase, which was later engulfed in fire, and jumping to the adjacent building’s terrace. He suffered nearly 25% burns and was rushed to Safdarjung hospital in a car by his neighbour.

Police registered a case under sections pertaining to negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter, act endangering life, and causing death by negligence under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s sections 287, 125A, and 106 against unknown people.

Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Amit Goel said that the Palam Village police station received information about the fire at 7.04 am. Apart from 31 fire tenders, 11 CATS ambulances, Air Force Police, and teams from the National Disaster Response Force and power department joined the operation.

“The fire was doused after intensive firefighting. Thereafter, search and rescue operations were carried out. A total of nine people died in the fire incident while three others were injured,” said Goel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation. “The fire incident in Palam, Delhi, is saddening. I extend my condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. An ex gratia of ₹2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given ₹50,000,” the PMO India account posted on X.

Newly appointed lieutenant governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu ordered a fire audit of Delhi’s localities and institutions, and chief minister Rekha Gupta ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and announced financial assistance of ₹10 lakh each to the families of deceased adults, ₹5 lakh each to the families of deceased minors, and ₹2 lakh each to the seriously injured.

The Kashyap family has lived on the landfor around 70 years and opened the shop in 1987 as a hole-in-the-wall establishment, which quickly grew in size and popularity.

The patriarch of the family, Aam Aadmi Party leader Rajendra Kashyap,70, who is also the president of the Ram Chowk Market association, and six other family members were in Goa, Solan and Najafgarh, said locals.

Rajendra was in Goa for a political meeting, his son Sunil along with his wife Gauri and two sons were in Solan on a vacation. Parvesh’s wife Kavita and their son were at his in-laws’ house in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, said relatives.

At the hospital, grief and anger shrouded family members as they alleged delay in rescue operations.

Relatives and local residents claimed that nine family members – including the three who survived – waited in the third-floor balcony for nearly 90 minutes, shouting and crying for help but the authorities failed to rescue them.

“My family members could have been saved had the DFS’s fire engine not malfunctioned leading to a delay of one and a half hours..I can’t believe nine of my 12 family members are dead,” said Kavita.

Relatives and neighbours alleged too alleged that the hydraulic ladder of the fire truck malfunctioned.

A fire operator, on the condition of anonymity, said the 42-metre-long ladder, installed on top of a standard water tender, can effectively reach the height of 30 feet - effectively only till the second floor of a building.

The Bronto truck which has a hydraulic ladder that could extend upto 42 metres could only be installed by around 8.30am as it took time to reach the spot and be adjusted, the firefighter said. This ladder, too, allegedly stopped functioning another 90 minutes later, forcing the rescuers to summon another one from the DFS headquarters in Connaught Place – roughly 22km away, said a fire control room operator.

“This incident is extremely tragic... The recurring fire incidents in the capital are a matter of grave concern. Narrow lanes, multi-story buildings built adjacent to one another, and inadequate safety measures exacerbate this danger. It is absolutely essential for the government to take concrete and immediate steps in this direction,” said former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

He said that the inquiry will focus on multiple aspects, including the cause of the fire and the speed of the initial response.