3 children among 6 dead in night fire at Delhi’s Zakir Nagar

When the fire broke out at around 2.15am — allegedly in electricity meter boards installed in the building’s stilt car park — there were over 40 people staying in the 13 small flats in the building.

Six people, including three children and a pregnant woman, were killed and at least 14 others injured in a massive fire in a four-storey residential building in a narrow, congested lane of Zakir Nagar in south Delhi in the early hours of Tuesday.

With fire tenders delayed due to the congested bylanes, it was local residents who carried out a major portion of the rescue operation. (Burhaan Kinu/ HT Photo)

When the fire broke out at around 2.15am — allegedly in electricity meter boards installed in the building’s stilt car park — there were over 40 people staying in the 13 small flats in the building.

Atul Garg, chief fire officer (Delhi Fire Services), said that while the residents on the first floor managed to climb down to safety using ladders, those on the upper floors were trapped because burning cars and motorcycles in the stilt parking let off dense smoke that engulfed the building and rendered the staircase unnegotiable.

The terrace, which was locked from inside, could not be accessed either.

Nazim Saifi, an eyewitness, said that several residents, including a woman who tied her toddler son to her back, chose to leap from their balconies to the street below. The jump killed two women — 30-year-old Nagma who also lost her two daughters to asphyxiation, and 34-year-old Zoha who was four months pregnant.

With fire tenders delayed due to the congested bylanes, it was local residents who carried out a major portion of the rescue operation. This included using hammers to break a side wall of the building, and laying out mattresses and holding bedsheets on the street to break the fall of the people jumping from balconies.

Survivors and local residents alleged that the rescue was also delayed because the electricity department did not shut down the power in the neighbourhood despite repeated requests.

“The electric wires kept burning, and we were afraid that we would be electrocuted if we went in to rescue the trapped people,” said Junaid, who climbed down a ladder to safety. “I finally climbed the transformer pole and turned off the power,” said Shahbab Saif, a neighbour.

But power supplier BSES contended there was no such delay. “Upon receiving the call, the linesman was deputed and the supply was disconnected within a few minutes,” the company said in a statement.

By the time the local residents and firefighters rescued the occupants of the building, four others had died. These were 34-year-old Wasim, who was charred beyond recognition, Nagma’s two daughters Aamna, 10, and Zikra, 8, and a six-year-old boy Adyan. The police identified them only by their first names.

The blaze also left at least 14 persons injured and in hospital, including four firefighters. The condition of seven other injured people remained serious until Tuesday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, Delhi’s lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met the injured in hospital. Kejriwal later announced financial assistance of ₹5 lakh each for the kin of the dead and ₹2 lakh each for the injured.

This is the third major incident of fire in this part of the city since late March. On March 26, two siblings, aged 6 and 7, were killed in a fire that broke out at their home in Abul Fazl Enclave, about 2km from Tuesday’s accident spot.

On June 19, seven people had to be rescued by firefighters from a seven-storey building that caught fire in the same Abul Fazl Enclave. This incident was strikingly similar to the one on Tuesday -- in both cases, the fire broke out in the electricity meters and the residents got trapped due to burning vehicles in the parking lot.

Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said that a case of causing death due to negligence and negligent conduct with fire was filed against unknown persons. BSES officials indicated that one reason for the fire could be that the building was consuming more power than its supply lines could handle.