A 28-year-old firefighter was killed and 17 people suffered injuries after a three-storey building that housed the office, storeroom and manufacturing unit of a battery company in outer Delhi’s Peeragarhi Industrial Area collapsed due to an explosion triggered by a fire early on Thursday, police and fire officials said.
A senior fire department official said the building, built on a 3,000 square yard plot, did not have its no-objection certificate (NoC). Police said the exact cause of the blast could be ascertained after a detailed investigation.
Delhi Fire Services rushed to the site after the blaze broke out around 4am. By 7am, much of the fire was contained, but an explosion in the central section of the structure tore through the building and brought down a large part.
Three firefighters and three employees of battery manufacturer Okaya were trapped in the rubble. While the three employees were pulled out within an hour, it took rescuers up to seven hours to bring out the firemen. Twelve other firemen suffered minor injuries in the blast and during the rescue operation.
Amit Baliyan, who was pulled out around 2:20pm, was declared dead after he was rushed to a nearby hospital. He had married in February 2019, and is survived by his wife. They lived with his parents in Meet Nagar, near Loni, in northeast Delhi.
“Amit Baliyan laid down his life while serving the people of Delhi. Nothing can bring back a loved one lost, but Delhi govt will provide his family with ₹1 crore as financial assistance. It’s the least we can do as a society,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Thursday evening.
Manjeet Rana, another firefighter trapped in the rubble, was rescued at 10:40am. He suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries, and is undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of a local hospital in the vicinity.
Minutes after Rana was rescued, the structure collapsed further, inflicting lethal wounds on Baliyan and cutting off his communication lines, said Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services.
A Koan, deputy commissioner of police (outer district), said a case under three sections, including causing death by negligence, of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Paschim Vihar (West) police station. He did not give further details.
HT sent an email and called landline numbers mentioned on Okaya’s website. There was no response from the company. Its website showed that the building functioned as its corporate office.
“The building was constructed on a 3,000 square yard plot and had a basement, but did not have a fire NoC,” Garg said, adding the basement was used to manufacture batteries.
This was the fourth major fire tragedy in Delhi since December 8, when a blaze ripped through a five-storey building in north Delhi’s Anaj Mandi, killing 45 people. Less than a week later, three persons were killed in a fire in a residential building in Shalimar Bagh. And on December 23, nine were killed after a blaze engulfed a three-storey building in Prem Nagar.
In Peeragarhi, the fire broke out in the basement of the building, which is flanked by two wide alleys. It has two front gates. The building is located on the busy Delhi-Rohtak Road, and is at a walking distance from the Peeragarhi Metro station.
Garg said no work was going on in the building, and three staffers — all security guards and caretakers — were inside when they spotted the blaze in the basement. They called the police and the fire control room between 4.15am and 4.23am.
“The fire had spread from the basement to the upper floors. By 7 am, we contained much of the fire, except in the basement, when there was a massive blast…As of now we don’t know what triggered the explosion,” said Sunil Choudhary, the deputy chief fire officer.
Nishant Bodh, sub-divisional magistrate (Punjabi Bagh), said the blast could have occurred in a boiler or in the batteries stored in the building, but the exact cause needed to be investigated.
Minutes before the blast, the three employees, who had already left the building, went to the ground floor to collect their belongings. “Some firemen were already fighting the blaze inside while a couple of them went after them,” said Bodh.
All six men, including the three rescurers, were trapped in the collapse that occurred in multiple phases over a one-hour period.“This is among the tough operations we have undertaken. It will take us at least 48 hours of non-stop work to clear the rubble and confirm that no one else is trapped inside,” said Shri Niwas, an assistant commandant of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). The force took part in the rescue operations along with rescuers of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.
Delhi’s home minister, Satyendar Jain, visited the site and announced a magisterial enquiry. Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Manoj Tiwari, too visited the spot, and asked for a fire safety audit of Delhi’s buildings.
