Monu, khatam hone wala hoon aaj (Monu, I am going to die today). There is fire everywhere. Brother, please come to Delhi tomorrow and take me. There is fire everywhere and no way to escape,” a 30-year-old worker named Musharraf Ali, a native of Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, told his friend Monu Aggarwal over a phone call.
The audio clip of the phone call between the two friends while Ali was trapp ed inside a building and told his friend that he won’t survive and to take care of his family, was recorded during the Anaj Mandi blaze in 2019.
“I will not survive today. Please take care of my family, brother... I am not able to breathe... just come and take me...take care of the family,” he further said. Ali also requested Monu to break the news of his impending death to the elders of the house first.When Monu asked him to try to save himself, he said, “Ab koi raasta nahi bacha (there is no way now). I am about to die, brother, just three-four minutes remain...even if I die, I will be with you.”
Not just Ali, but 42 people perished in a massive fire at a factory in Anaj Mandi area of Delhi. The deceased were mostly daily wage labourers hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It was a wake-up call for the authorities to prevent such incidents but even now, three years later, they continue to happen.
Just a few days back, students of a coaching institute in the Mukherjee Nagar area of northwest Delhi smashed windows, climbed down ropes and took the help of ladders in a desperate attempt to escape a fire that broke out on the top floor of the building housing it.
The fire had broken out at Bhandari House, Batra Complex, Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi. Around 200-250 students from different coaching centres were attending classes at the time of the incident.Fortunately, there were no casualties but some students received injuries in the incident while they were escaping from the building.
According to the police, 61 students as well as a few staff of commercial offices, sustained burn injuries on their arms, neck, and legs. They also said two students sustained severe injuries after they jumped out and fell on an AC compressor.Soon after the incident, the police registered an FIR and a day later, two people were arrested, who went on to secure bail from a local court.
Two days after the incident, a vacation bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justices Jasmeet Singh and Vikas Mahajan took suo-motu cognizance and asked the authorities to examine the safety status of such institutes in the national capital while issuing notice in the matter.
Citing media reports, the court asked the Delhi Fire Service to examine the fire safety certificate of all coaching centers in the city and also sought the response of the Delhi Police. The MCD was also asked to look into the sanctioned building plans of such establishments.
A fire department official told TNIE that an inspection of the building following the blaze revealed that it had no fire-fighting equipment, an issue which comes to the fore after just about every such incident.
Coaching centres operate without adhering to fire norms
The fire in the coaching center has raised concerns over illegal and unauthorized buildings running
commercial businesses in the national capital.There are over 5,000 coaching centers for students preparing for competitive examinations operating in Delhi, spread across Laxmi Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Kalu Sarai, Satya Niketan, Rajendra Palace and Karol Bagh areas, among others.
A fire official said that most of these institutes don’t bother to obtain a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the fire department.“Many coaching centres are located in congested areas. So when such an incident happens, fire tenders find it difficult to reach the spot,”Delhi Fire Service director Atul Garg said.
When asked whether the said building had a fire NOC, Garg said it was not required as per fire safety norms based on height of the building.Another official told this newspaper that the building had only one exit. “The incident would have become big had the students and fire officials not acted timely,” the official said, adding that the concerned authorities should take strict action against such establishments, which are operating by flouting all norms.
Mukherjee Nagar has, in recent years, turned into a coaching hub for government job aspirants and
is a popular hangout zone for students from the nearby Delhi University campus.As one walks down the narrow lanes of the area, one comes across thousands of billboards and banners of coaching institutes.
But are these buildings safe and equipped to handle or prevent any calamity? The question is yet to be answered though the recent fire incident indicates that all is not well. Things turn serious as every building has hundreds of students studying at one time and if any emergency situation happens, they are all at risk.
Not to forget the Mundka fire incident where twenty-seven human lives perished on May 13, 2022, in one of the deadliest tragedies that the national capital had seen in the recent past years. A massive fire gutted a four-storey building located near a metro station, charring to death 27 people and wounding 12 in west Delhi’s Mundka area.
The MCD is now preparing to seal all rogue coaching institutes where the rules of Master Plan 2021 have been violated. According to officials, it will carry out inspections at all coaching centers in the city.
“The teams will be deployed who will check whether the institutes have relevant permissions and documents for their operations. Fire NOC, building bylaws, and other adherence to other codes will also be assessed,” a senior official from the enforcement department said.
Citing rules as per Master Plan 2021, officials said that to open a coaching center in a plotted development area, the width of the roads should be at least 18 meters. The width of the roads should be at least 9 meters to open coaching centers in raw colonies, unauthorized regularization (UR) and rural areas.“There is no restriction on opening coaching centers in commercial areas but it is mandatory to possess NOCs from MCD, fire dept, DPCC and Delhi Police,” another official said.
Issue of small factories operating in congested areas
One of the worst kept secrets of Delhi is the presence of small-scale industries flourishing in the middle of heavily-populated areas served by congested lanes.The city has thousands of such factories which are literally ticking time bombs.When one looks at major fire accidents that have occurred in the past couple of years, factories being run sans fire safety standards were found to constitute a substantial chunk of such incidents.
Every year, the Delhi Fire Service provides a NOC to around 50-70 factories; however, several stay off the radar. A fire department official told this newspaper that they do not directly deal with the public to provide a NOC.
“We are not a licensing authority to do that. It is the duty of the building authority or the civic agency to refer the case to us before permitting or giving a license to a building or even a factory,” the official said. It is pertinent to mention that most of the buildings that are gutted in fire incidents lack fire safety standards and NOC.
An NOC certifies that a building has been deemed to comply with fire prevention and fire safety requirements in accordance with Rule 33 of Delhi Fire Service Rules.While the Delhi Fire Service claims to constantly upgrade itself both technically and manually, the rising population of the workers in these factories are adding to its woes. Hanging wires, overloaded circuits, old buildings, water shortage, and narrow lanes creat hurdles for the firemen and their equipment to quickly reach a fire site.
Whenever a fire incident is reported from such areas,even the fire truck is unable to reach immediately to the accident site and the rescue operation gets delayed.To tackle the problem of narrow alleys, the Delhi Fire Service has now introduced a motorcycle (Back Pack) and Innova or Xylo SUV for fires in streets and narrow lanes.
In order to negotiate the congested lanes, heavy traffic in various parts of the capital city, the fleet of the Delhi Fire Service got a water mist system that is mounted on motorcycles (MCFR).These motorcycles fitted with fire-fighting equipment are quick and can immediately reach the spot without any delay.
The bike is fitted with two water cylinders which the firemen have to ultimately carry on his back during the firefighting operation.
The Delhi Fire Service has also inducted two Remote Controlled Fire Fighting Machines, popularly known as ROBOTS, which offers safe working conditions for fire-fighters and rescue teams.“The ROBOTS gains closer proximity to the fire and thus enables firefighters to protect themselves from intense heat, smoke, vapours and offer them a great control over the fire fighting operation and penetrate the fire source directly,” the official said.
Fire incidents over the years
Fire noc norms
Rule 27 of Delhi Fire Service
Rules 2010 specifies that these buildings require an NOC: