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Delhi: Roof of loft collapses in Vishnu Garden; 4 killed
South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) officials said the factory was running illegally and the licence inspector has been suspended. The SDMC in its statement said that the factory building is 20-25 year old and located in the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation’s (DSIIDC) governed redevelopment area.
Four people, including three women, were killed and at least two others were injured — one of them critically — after the roof of a loft constructed on the ground floor of a three-storey building collapsed in west Delhi’s Vishnu Garden near Khyala on Saturday morning.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) officials said the factory was running illegally and the licence inspector has been suspended. The SDMC in its statement said that the factory building is 20-25 year old and located in the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation’s (DSIIDC) governed redevelopment area.
“The department raised discrepancies when the building where incident took place, had applied for factory license. Their application for factory license was on hold and it was running illegally,” SDMC said in the statement.
The SDMC said that a loft that was made inside the room by laying red stones upon the iron angles was laden heavily with materials. “Due to the massive weight of the materials stored on the loft, the iron angles bent and the whole materials fell upon people sitting in the room,” the south corporation said.
Police said all six people killed or injured were migrant workers had just began their work, when the roof caved in around 9.30am due to the overload of hundreds of kilos of raw and manufactured iron materials that were stuffed in 80-100 plastic sacks.
A case of death by negligence was registered at the Khyala police station and the factory owner, Mahender Pal,35, who also owns the building, has been arrested, said additional deputy commissioner of police (west) Subodh Kumar Goswami.
Delhi fire services (DFS) chief Atul Garg said that the fire control room received a call about the house collapse in RZ-block in Vishnu Garden. Four fire tenders, along with rescue teams, were dispatched. Teams of national disaster response force (NDRF), Delhi disaster management authority (DDMA), civil defence and CATS ambulances also rushed to the mishap spot.
“Six people, who were trapped under the debris, were rescued with the help of locals and rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where four of them were declared brought dead. It’s a 60 square yard factory building, which was also being used for storing metal items,” said Garg.
The victims were identified as Guddi,45, China Devi,36, Twinkle,25, and Ramesh,35. The two injured were Ravi,20, and Guddu Kumar,18.
Additional DCP Goswami said that the concerned sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) was informed for further legal proceedings.
A senior fire officer who was leading the rescue operation said that since the factory building was in a narrow lane, the fire tenders could not reach there. He said that the building only had one entry and exit and it was partially blocked because of the metal items and debris.
“There were five big and small lathe machines just on the ground floor. Prime facie, it appears that they all were functioning. The shacking of the machines and the overload of metal items may have led to the roof collapse. No fire safety arrangements were found in the building,” he said.
Workers and locals became the first responder
As the mishap took place, around 20 people, including a dozen workers working on the building’s first floor and locals, rushed to save the lives of the six trapped workers. The collapse of hundreds of kilos of debris led to a power cut and created a cloud of dust, rendering the first responders blind for at least a couple of minutes.
“The entire area was dark and we were not able to see anything. Since we did not hear anyone’s scream from inside, our first impression that everyone was dead. But as we began our rescue , we found Ravi lying near lathe machine, crying in pain and asking for help. He was not able to move his body because of fractures in his back,” said Raju Singh, a local resident.
Another resident, Deepak Yadav, said that it took almost half an hour to rescue the trapped workers, despite 20 people worked together and removing the debris. “By the time the rescue teams reached, we had already rescued four people from the debris. The faces of two women were crushed beyond identification,” added Yadav.
