Footwear stores at Ghaffar market gutted in pre-dawn blaze

A fire department official said that firefighting in areas such as Ghaffar Market poses additional challenges because of narrow lanes and low-hanging electrical wires.

A massive fire broke out at Karol Bagh’s Ghaffar Market in the early hours of Sunday, resulting in losses to the tune of crores of rupees, shop owners said. Nobody was injured in the incident, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) officials said.

DFS director Atul Garg said they received a call reporting the blaze at 4:16am, after which 39 fire tenders were pressed into service.

DFS director Atul Garg said they received a call reporting the blaze at 4:16am, after which 39 fire tenders were pressed into service.

“The fire was brought under control by 9am but the cooling off operation continued till late evening. The shops where the fire took place were full of combustible material which is why small fires kept erupting even during the cooling off operations,” Garg said.

Dharam Pal Arora (60), president of Karol Bagh’s Wholesale Footware Association, said he owns a footwear wholesale shop in the lane where the fire broke out and a security guard informed him about it. “It was 4am and the guard spotted the fire in the building located a few metres near my shop. He called me and I informed the fire department. They reached half an hour after the call,” he said.

Arora said that fire broke out in about three or four buildings housing seven-eight wholesale shops seeling shoes. “Immediately, it would difficult to assess the loss due to the fire, but it may run into crores of rupees,” he said.

A fire department official said that firefighting in areas such as Ghaffar Market poses additional challenges because of narrow lanes and low-hanging electrical wires. “There is barely space for people to walk in these lanes. Fire tenders could not reach the spot and have to be parked at a distance. At least four-five hosepipes were attached to each tender and we used the sky lift, which was parked on the main road, to throw water in the lane,” the official said.

There was no source of water close by, the official added. “That is why 39 fire tenders were pressed into service because 20 were being to douse fire and the rest were getting water,” he said.

The fire also caused a snarl on the main road even as the Delhi traffic police issued an advisory on social media. “Kindly avoid Gurudwara Road, Ajmal Khan Road between 1000 hrs to 1800 hrs due to the fire incident that took place in Gaffar Market (footwear),” the traffic police tweeted.

Deputy commissioner of police (central) Shweta Chauhan said the local police reached the spot immediately and cordoned off the area. Police said that the fire has structurally weakened the two four-storey buildings. “MCD has been informed about it,” Chauhan said.