One charred body found in burnt Peeragarhi shoe godown in Delhi

At least 10 people were trapped inside the godown when the fire broke out around 8am. Six of them came out on their own while four were missing till late Monday night

A charred body was recovered in the early hours of Tuesday from the shoe godown in Udyog Vihar near Peeragarhi in Delhi, where a major fire had broken out on Monday morning. At least 10 people were trapped inside the godown when the fire broke out around 8am. Six of them came out on their own while four were missing till late Monday night. The search operation continued throughout the night.

Smoke billows from a fire in a footwear factory at Udyog Nagar in New Delhi on Monday, June 21. (Amal KS/HT photo)

“We have recovered one body from the second floor of the burnt godown. Our search operation is still on to find out if more bodies are inside the godown,” said Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg.

More than 100 fire fighters and 35 fire tenders had worked for nearly eight hours to douse the flames.

“It was a major category fire and a tough operation for our men because inflammable materials, such as shoes and packing material, were stored in huge quantity in the godown,” Garg had said on Monday.

When they began the operation, the firefighters did not know that 10 workers slept in the godown, thus delaying their rescue. “Initially, nobody told us about the people inside. We would have begun the rescue operation had we been told about the missing persons in the beginning. By the time we were informed, the fire had engulfed the entire godown. We did not rescue anyone from the building till evening,” the DFS chief had said.