NEW DELHI: Three people including two women died when a massive fire broke out at a hardware factory situated in Shahdara’s Jhilmil industrial area in the national capital on Saturday morning, police said.
The fire broke out at a rubber-plastic factory at around 9 am, said a Delhi Fire Services official.
The deceased were identified as Manju, Sangeeta and Shoaib. It is suspected that the victims may have died due to asphyxiation as there were no major burn injuries on their bodies, police said.
The factory was of hardware manufacturing and they used to make taps. The fire started from the first floor of the building and engulfed the whole building, police said.
Around 60 workers were present inside the building when the incident happened as the factory used to open at around 9 in the morning. Most of the workers came out of the building but the three victims were present on the second floor and could not get passage to come downstairs as it was filled with smoke, said Pradeep (28), supervisor of the factory.
It seems like the fire took place due to a short circuit, he said, adding that immediately, the fire department was informed about the incident.
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According to the fire officials, the information about the blaze was received at 9.25 am and 31 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The chief fire officer and the director of fire department also joined the rescue operation.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will investigate the fire incident in Jhilmil factory. Ranen Kumar, deputy commissioner, factory licence department of EDMC said that detailed investigation of this incident will be done. Mr. Kumar said that the licence of the factory had already expired and it was not renewed. He said that the factory was operating in the area of 110 sq meters and Fire NOC not required for the area below 250 sq meter as per norms. It has also been revealed from TV reports that fire extinguishers were installed in the factory and there was no child labourer.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced Rs 5 lakh compensation to each of the families of those who died in the incident. Mr Kejriwal visited the site with Industries Minister Satyendar Jain. The chief minister said a probe would be conducted to ascertain the reason behind the incident and action would be taken against anyone not following fire norms.
