43 dead in fire at illegal factory in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi

The building had only a few windows and just one narrow entrance, effectively turning the structure — built in a cramped neighbourhood with serpentine lanes — into an inferno around 5am.

Forty three people died in a devastating fire that ripped through an illegal factory in north Delhi’s congested Anaj Mandi early on Sunday, the worst blaze in 20 years that exposed shoddy city planning and lax enforcement of fire safety rules in the Capital.

Charred goods inside the factory in Anaj Mandi on north Delhi’s Rani Jhansi Road on Sunday. (AP)

Twenty people were injured in the fire that broke out in the five-storey building that housed at least five different unlicenced units manufacturing bags, plastic toys and jackets, and employed roughly 70 workers who also slept on the floor at night.

The building had only a few windows and just one narrow entrance, effectively turning the structure — built in a cramped neighbourhood with serpentine lanes — into an inferno around 5am.

Tearful relatives said they received desperate calls from workers begging to be freed from the burning building in the dark, poorly lit premises.

“I got a call from Imran, my elder son, who said ‘Abbu, a massive fire has erupted in the building. I won’t be able to come out alive. Please save me’,” said 58-year-old Nafees, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad town.

He lost both his sons — 35-year-old Imran and 32-year-old Ikram — in the fire.

Shakir Hussain, a native of Bihar, called his pregnant wife minutes before the flames engulfed him. “I am trapped. i won’t come out alive,” he said.

Babar Ali, 32, rescued his sister-in-law Maisuma Bibi, who was woken from her bed on the ground of a first-floor handbag factory. Ali said the lives of the migrant workers, who were paid between ₹7,000 and 10,000 a month, was “a bigger tragedy than their death.”

“Their only fault was they were poor. Why else would someone work and sleep in such a congested place?” said Ali, who used to work in the same building.

Local residents said they were woken up on the misty winter morning by screams of people clamouring to be rescued from the fire around 4am but didn’t realise the fire had trapped the workers, who were between 13 and 27 and hailed from impoverished districts in Bihar and UP.

An hour had passed before plumes of smoke alerted locals and by the time the fire services received a call at 5.22am, hundreds had gathered around the blazing building.

“Four of us would carry a man to the ground floor and return to help the next one. It seemed like we were carrying away furniture. I began crying,” said civil defence volunteer, SK Surana.

At least 30 fire tenders arrived quickly but the narrow single approach to the building made it impossible for the bulky engines to reach close to the building. Rescuers had to move dozens of rickshaws and bikes so that the firemen could make their way through the labyrinthine roads enmeshed with electrical wiring.

“The smoke trapped them. The smoke spread quickly because of the plastic and other inflammable items. The stairs that would lead to the entry-exit gate had caught fire. They were trapped,” a senior police officer outside the building said on condition of anonymity.

Senior fire department officers said they had only a sketchy idea of the workers trapped inside. “We thought there were only a dozen occupants initially,” said senior fire officer Sunil Kumar. “Nobody knew how many people were inside. The injured also could not tell us,” he added. It took them 4.5 hours to douse the fire.

Doctors said most of the deaths were due to people inhaling poisonous gases inside the already cramped premises. “Some of the patients have superficial burn injuries but the problem is that most of them have inhaled a lot of smoke,” said Dr Kishore Singh, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital. A senior hospital official said none of the bodies had been burnt and most of them died because they inhaled smoke.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation said the factory was illegal. The Anaj Mandi area, which was originally residential, was declared ‘mix land use’ in 2006 — only commercial activities such as grocery stores and ‘household’ industries (employing not more than nine people and using not more than 11 kW power) are allowed.

The Delhi Fire Services said that factory did not have a no-objection certificate. Police arrested the building owner, Mohammed Rehan and his manager, Furkan, and charged them with culpable homicide and attempt to culpable homicide. The crime branch has taken over the probe and are trying to identify the contractors running the factories.

The fire department said this was one of Delhi’s worst fire accidents. On June 13, 1997, a fire that started from a transformer in the basement of Uphaar cinema complex caused 59 deaths. Two years later, in Old Delhi’s Lal Kuan, 57 persons died in chemical warehouse fire.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the area in the afternoon ordered a magisterial inquiry and announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh for the families of the dead and the injured. “No culprit will be spared,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the fire incident was ‘extremely horrific.’ “My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy,” he tweeted. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi also condoled the loss of lives.

Delhi Police said the cause of fire was not ascertained yet. Police suspect a short circuit or an accidental fire caused by a cooking gas cylinder but are yet to gather any evidence.

Muhammad Mustafa, a 24-year-old survivor, said each floor had at least four rooms and each room had 5-6 residents. “We worked in the rooms and slept in the same room at night. There were some women and children too,” he said.

Mustafa said he couldn’t find an escape route as the staircase was burning. “For over an hour, I stood near a window to be able to breathe. I was later rescued by the fire brigade,” he added.