Two days after a massive fire ripped through a four-storey residential-cum-commercial building in southwest Delhi’s Palam, killing nine members of a family, authorities have zeroed in on four critical aspects: response time, escalation speed, functioning of rescue equipment, and overall fire department preparedness, officials aware of the matter said on Friday.
Two days after the blaze ripped through the four-storey building in southwest Delhi, police said witnesses – including neighbours who first spotted smoke and fire and first responders – indicated the fire originated in the basement. While a short circuit is suspected, the exact electrical appliance that triggered it remains unknown.
Call centre data has been requisitioned to reconstruct the sequence from the first emergency call to the arrival of fire tenders, to examine potential delays in response time, officials cited above said. Investigators are also analysing how the fire escalated within minutes and reviewing the functioning of critical rescue equipment during the operation.
While a short circuit is suspected to have triggered the fire, the exact electrical equipment or appliance that started it is still unknown, they added.
To ascertain the source, a team from the electrical inspectorate of the Delhi government’s labour department
inspected the basement and upper floors. The grid line supply, equipment such as electrical and solar panels, meter boards, the centralised air conditioning system, and electric home appliances were inspected, said a police officer, who wishes not to be named.
“The team will share its findings. We have also asked the Delhi Fire Services to submit their findings on the cause of the fire and inflammable materials inside the building that fueled the fire that engulfed the entire structure,” the officer added.
According to police, even though the building’s basement, ground and first floors were used for running hosiery, cosmetics and artificial jewellery businesses, only a few fire extinguishers and sand buckets were available, and no proper firefighting equipment, such as smoke and fire detectors or sprinklers, was installed.
“Since the fire started in the basement and the flames quickly engulfed the staircase – the only entry and exit point – nobody could come downstairs to access the available firefighting items,” another officer said, requesting anonymity.
The deceased in the fire incident on Wednesday at Ram Chowk Market in Palam Colony’s Sadh Nagar, were identified as Lado Kashyap, 70, three of her children: Kamal Kashyap, 39, Pravesh Kashyap, 34, and Himanshi, 22, Kamal’s wife Ashu, 35, and their three daughters, Niharika, 15, Ivani, 6, and Jaisika, 3, and Lado’s other daughter-in-law, Deepika, 28. The injured were identified as Anil, 32, his 1.5-year-old daughter Mitali and his brother, Sachin, 28. Anil and Mitali fell off the building while being rescued.
“The bodies of Lado and Himanshi were completely charred, making it very hard for us to identify which body belonged to whom. At the time of the autopsy, family members identified Himanshi by a golden ring on her finger. Both Lado and Himanshi were found in the bathroom on the third floor. The other seven bodies were found on the balcony on the third floor,” said an investigator.
