A 17-year-old girl was charred to death and nearly 100 jhuggis were gutted after a major fire broke out at a slum cluster near Rithala village in northwest Delhi’s Rohini in the early hours of Thursday, police and fire department officials said.
The blaze also engulfed an adjacent godown and a few residential buildings nearby, prompting a large-scale firefighting operation involving 15 fire tenders that continued through the day.
The Delhi Fire Services received a call reporting the fire near Rithala Metro station at 4.15am, officials said.
Ten fire tenders were initially dispatched, with five more rushed after the control room was informed that the flames were spreading rapidly to an adjacent godown and residential structures.
“The fire was largely brought under control after three hours, but the cooling operation continued till late evening. After locals claimed that one girl was missing, the firefighters carried out searches and recovered the charred body of a 17-year-old girl from a gutted tenement,” said a senior DFS official.
“The fire spread to around 100 huts and a godown of paper rolls and cardboards spread in a 400 square yards area. Some residential flats, doors and windows were also damaged,” the official added.
Additional commissioner of police (Rohini) Rajeev Ranjan said police personnel participated in evacuating residents after the Budh Vihar police station was alerted.
“Nearly 10 ambulances were deployed, and the area was cordoned off to support rescue and firefighting operations. The charred body of Rozina Khatun,17, was recovered. A case of death by negligence, negligent conduct with respect to fire and act endangering life and personal safety of others has been registered. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined,” added Ranjan.
Residents of the Bangali Basti said the fire started just minutes after they had finished eating Sehri, the pre-dawn meal during Ramzan.
“All of us had gone back to sleep after Sehri meals. Rozina was awake and she was the one who woke up all of us when the fire started. She returned to check on her sister and then went back to collect the clothes we had purchased for Eid… Then we found her body charred in the morning,” said Khatun’s 53-year-old father Hanaf Laskar.
“She had bought clothes for Eid and had recently got them stitched, even giving inputs on their designs. She was so excited for Eid,” Laskar added, sitting next to his younger daughter who had her left foot burnt while escaping the fire.
Umpa, 42, who works as a cook in Rohini Sector-5, said that the fire broke out near the only gate of the slum, effectively trapping people inside.
“We had no option but to climb walls to save our lives. If we hadn’t been up for Sehri, all of us would have met the same fate,” she said.
In November last year, a similar fire broke out in another slum cluster in the same lane near Rithala Metro Station, leaving close to a hundred families homeless and claiming two lives.
Thursday’s blaze also spread to nearby houses and a gasket rubber factory, though no additional casualties were reported.
“I received a call about the fire. I stay just a few 10-15mins away in Budh Vihar so thought I’ll check my factory once. When I reached there, I found the factory was completely covered in smoke,” said Rajendra Sharma who has been running the gasket factory for the past 15-16 years.