New Delhi: Police are probing if faulty wiring sparked the East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar fire that claimed nine lives in a four-storey house on Sunday.An electrical inspection of the premises was conducted on Tuesday. Investigators are checking if ageing or substandard wiring caused a short circuit, sparking an air-conditioner explosion and the subsequent fire.
Police plan to summon the builder and others after the report to check if construction and safety norms were followed, especially wiring quality and its load-bearing capacity.The house is located close to a drain. It is also being examined whether an air-conditioner gas leak that may have mixed with toxic gases emanating from the drain, potentially triggered the blast. Police said certain air-conditioner gases can be highly flammable under specific conditions, which may have contributed to the intensity of the explosion.Police said that forensic reports are still awaited. “We are probing every possible angle in the case,” a police officer said.The incident was reported around 3.48 am. The building where the incident occurred is divided into multiple flats, with a total of eight flats in the building, which houses eight families.Meanwhile, the Delhi Fire Services is planning to establish a centralised command and control centre equipped with artificial intelligence, GPS and GIS-based systems. To improve coordination, fire tenders will be fitted with Mobile Data Terminals, and vehicles will also be fitted with cameras for live operational monitoring.
