NEW DELHI: A massive fire broke out in three buildings at Old Delhi’s Azad market area on Saturday morning while one of these buildings, a four-story structure collapsed, however, there were no casualties reported, said fire officials. According to Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief Atul Garg, 20 fire tenders were pushed into service to douse the fire.
“A call was received at 4.41 am and fire tenders were sent around 5.30 am. The fire was doused by around 8:30 am. When a fire is raging in the portion of a building that has collapsed, it is difficult to douse, as building material gets collected there and the smoke keeps billowing from beneath it. Cooling operations had to be undertaken at the site to make it safe for passersby,” said Garg.
North district police officials said that five people suffered minor injuries after a cylinder exploded at a shop. “It is suspected that the cause of the fire was a short circuit in an electric pole and a cylinder blast at one of the shops. Investigation is underway to determine the exact cause. "We called in fire tenders after receiving information that fire had broken out in the market’s main road shop,” said a senior police officer.
One of the buildings that collapsed housed some small shops which sold goods such as paint, tarpaulin sheets and bags. A car also caught fire during the incident.
DCP (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said, “The cylinder explosion took place in a welding shop. Five persons suffered minor injuries due to splinters from the explosion.”
Disaster management teams were deployed and earthmoving machines were called to remove the debris from the collapsed building, the DCP said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday wished a ‘speedy recovery’ to those injured in the incident. He also lauded the efforts of the fire services as well as the disaster management teams.
“I received the sad news about the fire break out in the morning. The fire services and disaster management teams have handled the situation with great gusto. I wish a speedy recovery to all those injured in this accident,” the chief minister tweeted.