Fire at Azadpur Mandi in Delhi, no injuries

Officials said that the fire, which broke out in the tomato storage and sale section of the market, was doused in 30 minutes

A fire broke out on Friday evening at Azadpur Mandi in northwest Delhi, officials of the fire department said, adding that no injuries were reported in the incident.

No injuries were reported in the fire at Azadpur Mandi on Friday. (PTI)

Officials of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said that 10 fire tenders were deployed to douse the flames which broke out in the tomato storage and sale section of the market, one of Asia’s largest wholesale vegetables and fruits markets.

The fire spread to a large portion of the shed under which tomatoes were stored, DFS officials said, adding that the fire, however, was not a major category fire and was doused within half an hour.

DFS director Atul Garg said that a call regarding the fire was received at 5.17pm after which the fire tenders rushed to the spot doused the flames by 6.30pm.

“Since the area was congested, we rushed 10 fire tenders to the spot,” said Garg.

Even as the fire was doused soon, several tomatoes and the crates they were kept in were destroyed in the blaze and in the firefighting operation that followed. Local vendors and members of the agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC), Azadpur, estimated the loss to be somewhere near ₹5-6 crores.

“Some of the vendors even lost their logbooks. The fire probably started from a dumpster behind the shed that caught fire and spread into the area where vendors store their vegetables,” said Azadpur APMC member Anil Malhotra.

Although the exact reason behind the fire could not be ascertained till late evening, the police said they suspected that the blaze started either due to a short-circuit in the electrical wiring or any electrical item, or due to a fire in garbage dumped in the backside of the tomato market.

“We are looking into the exact cause of the fire,” said deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Jitendra Kumar Meena.