Charred remains found in Delhi shoe factory gutted in major fire

At least five more persons are still missing as the search operation continued for nearly 40 hours since Monday morning.

A charred body was found in the early hours of Tuesday from a large shoe godown in Udyog Nagar near Peeragarhi in outer Delhi which went up in flames on Monday morning, fire department officials said.

Firefighters at work at shoe factory in Peeragarhi Udyog Nagar in outer Delhi. (Delhi Fire Services)

At least five more persons are still missing as the search operation continued for nearly 40 hours since Monday morning.

Delhi fire services chief Atul Garg said the assistant divisional officer Rajesh Kumar Shukla suffered fracture in his ribs when he slipped from the staircase of the building. He is undergoing treatment at Balaji Action hospital, Garg said.

Police as well as fire department personnel on Monday said that four families have come forward, claiming one of their members worked in the factory and was missing. Late on Monday night, two more families reached the godown and claimed their kin were also missing, they said.

While Garg confirmed that the charred remains of a human body was found on the second floor of the godown at 3am on Tuesday during their search operation, police officials said they would confirm it only after the an examination by the forensic experts.

“We have not been able to retrieve the remains that the fire officials found early Tuesday morning. Nothing can be said until we get the forensic report,” said deputy commissioner of police (outer) Parvinder Singh.

Police said the remains will be sent for DNA profiling to ascertain the identity and to know if they belong to one person or more. The missing persons have been identified by their families as Sonu, Vikram, Shamshad, Abhishek, Ajay and Neeraj. Sonu and Vikram, in their early 20s, were brother who lived in Ghazipur in east Delhi, their family members told the police.

DCP Singh a case of attempt to commit culpable homicide has been registered under Indian Penal Code’s section 308. The owner of the godown, Pankaj Garg, is absconding. “We may add more relevant sections of IPC in the case once it is confirmed that the charred remains are of a human body,” he added.

On Monday around 8.30 am, the fire control room was informed about a fire in a godown that is spread in nearly 1,000 square metres and consists of two buildings, each having a basement, ground and first floor. More than 100 fire fighters and 35 fire tenders worked for nearly eight hours to douse the flames. However, the cooling and search operations were on till Tuesday night.

The entire premises had a tin ceiling and was packed with shoes, slippers, and packaging materials such as boxes and adhesives. The tin roof collapsed while cracks have developed in the buildings and were declared dangerous by the municipal authority.

Initially, the fire and police department were told that there were at least 10 people inside the building when the blaze started. While six of them were rescued, four are still missing. Later on Monday night, families to two more workers informed about their missing.

“There is still extreme heat inside the building which is causing hindrance for officials to examine. Once the cooling operation is complete, we will use sniffer dogs to search the bodies,” said DCP Singh.