Two workers killed in blaze at godown in Kotla Mubarakpur
NEWDELHI: Two men died in a fire at a godown located in the basement of a building in south Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur area in the early hours on Saturday, police officials said.
Survivors said the two men who died — Manil Kumar (21) and Shyam Mahto (26) — were sleeping in a room that was far from the only exit in the basement that was used to store tents. Both were natives of Bihar.
“The charred bodies of Kumar and Mahto were recovered later and were sent to Safdarjung Hospital. The cause of fire is still not known. A case under section 304A for causing death due to negligence has been registered,” said deputy commissioner of police (south) Romil Baaniya.
Six other workers managed to escape, DCP Baaniya said.
One of the survivors said Kumar’s wedding had recently been fixed and he was slated to leave for his hometown Araria on Saturday for celebrations.
“His family had been planning to get him married for long. They had finalised his wedding and he was going to catch a train for Bihar on Saturday,” one of the workers said.
“We received a call about the fire at 3.05am and 10 fire tenders were rushed to contain it. It took at least an hour to control the situation. We recovered two bodies from the gutted rooms,” chief fire officer (CFO) of the Delhi Fire Services, Atul Garg said.
“I woke up at around 2.30am or 3am because the entire basement was full of smoke. We could barely breathe. I tried to alert as many others as possible. I wrapped a cloth on my face and helped others escape. Once we were all out, we realised that Kumar and Mahto were not out with us,” said a worker who did not wish to be named.
Vivek Batra, the owner of the tent house, said, “By the time I rushed to the spot, everything was gutted... I am not in a state to talk about the details of the fire.”