Series of fatal blazes put Delhi’s fire safety on spotlight

A fire in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar killed nine, highlighting ongoing fire safety issues amid rising emergencies in the city and past tragedies.

The residential building in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, where a fire on Sunday claimed nine lives, is barely a few hundred metres from neonatal hospital fire where nearly two years ago a blaze led to the death of seven babies. It also comes less than two months after a fire at a residential building in Palam Vihar killed nine members of one family.

More than 7,800 fire-related emergencies have been reported across the Capital in the first four months of 2026 (Hindustan Times)

More than 7,800 fire-related emergencies have been reported across the Capital in the first four months of 2026, with rising summer heat exacerbating fire risks across the city. Most of the incidents highlight the systemic shortcomings in Delhi’s fire preparedness and the need to relook at fire safety norms and their enforcement in the national capital.

To be sure, the lapses, if any, in Sunday’s are still under investigation. An official from MCD, on condition of anonymity, said large-scale unauthorised constructions and vulnerable areas prevent Delhi from meeting acceptable standards of fire safety. “Prima facie the building in Vivek Vihar seems planned with requisite permissions but this could happen any where in the city.”

On March 18, nine members of a family died after a fire erupted at their five-storey residential-cum commercial building at Ram Chowk Market, Sadh Nagar, Palam Vihar around 6.30 am. A delay in response by the fire services and inadequacy of rescue equipment were severely criticised at the time.

On March 12, 2022, a blaze in a slum cluster in Gokalpuri gutted around 60 huts and left seven people dead, with many others injured. Prior to that, on December 8, 2019, a fire in a four-storey factory in the Anaj Mandi area near Rani Jhansi flyover claimed 43 lives and injured 56, most of them labourers who were sleeping inside the workshop where school bags and shoes were manufactured. It triggered outrage and brought to light the mushrooming of illegal factories across the city and how rapid and unplanned urbanisation had set up potential fire hazards in these congested pockets.

Months before that, on February 12, 2019, a fire at Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh killed 17 people after flames rapidly spread through the building, worsened by the use of inflammable materials, forcing some victims to jump from upper floors.

Several fire safety-related regulations that were tightened after a fire at Karol Bagh in February 2019, were relaxed later. “Committees were also formed after all major fire incidents but nothing concrete came out and ultimately regulations were diluted. The thrust is on regularisation of illegalities. For a solution, the city needs to take strong action,” the MCD official quoted above said.

Despite direct intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at that time, enforcement agencies in the city have been unable to implement the “micro-area plans” to improve the safety standards of “special areas”, which include the Walled City, its extensions and parts of Karol Bagh and Paharganj. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, the NHRC sought disaster management plans for such areas.

The interventions were expected to be made in areas like Anaj Mandi and Sitaram Bazar on a pilot basis, but they plans never kicked off, another MCD official said.

The government, in May 2019, had said, “The fire department cannot issue an NOC (no-objection certificate) to any guest house or lodging facility, which has more than four floors, does not have ventilation in each floor, corridor, passage or does not submit blue print of every floor to the department.”

However, the directorate of local bodies issued an order in December that year, stating that hotels and guest houses covered under the Delhi Special Provisions Act, are no longer required to demolish the fourth floor and above, in order to get a fire no-objection certificate.

As per the revised guidelines, MCD and Delhi Fire Services now have to get affidavits signed from hotel owners that these spaces will not be used for activities that violate norms.

Older tragedies continue to loom large in the city’s memory, including the 1999 Lal Kuan chemical market fire that killed 57 people and injured 27, and the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire in Green Park that left 59 dead and over 100 injured. Together, they underline a persistent concerns over fire safety compliance, especially in congested residential, industrial, and commercial spaces in the Capital.