Fire guts Bawana godown, none hurt

NEWDELHI: Three people had a narrow escape when a three-storey warehouse they were sleeping in caught fire in outer Delhi’s Bawana industrial area in the early hours of Thursday.

The lower floors of the warehouse were the first to be gutted, blocking the only exit from the building. The three men found a wooden ladder that allowed them to scale a high wall from the terrace and escape through the adjacent building.

Since the building stored highly combustible plastic goods, it took firefighters nearly six hours to douse the flames. “But the impact of the heat was such that the structure cracked and threatened to damage the adjacent buildings as well. We got the buildings evacuated, but the gutted building, fortunately, did not collapse,” said Atul Garg, chief fire officer,delhi Fire Services.

While police and fire officials remained unsure about the trigger for the blaze, the owner of the building suspected the role of intruders. “It couldn’t be due to short-circuit because thieves had stolen the electricity cables of the building last Saturda. Someone either intentionally set the place on fire or it could be due to care- less smoking,” owner Ashok Kumar said.

Kumar wasn’t sure if he would approach the police with a complaint. Rajneesh Gupta, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said a decision on registering an FIR was yet to be taken as, prima facie, there was no foul play.

According to Kumar, until nine months ago, the building, located in Sector 5 of Bawana industrial area, doubled as a manufacturing and storage unit for plastic products. Of late, it was only being used as a godown, Kumar said, adding that the building had only one exit.

The three persons who were sleeping there worked elsewhere. “It was around 3am when dense smoke woke us. We immediately realised that the building was on fire and ran downstairs only to realise that we couldn’t escape. We then ran towards the terrace,” Babu Ram, one of the survivors, said. But a high wall stared at the men who decided to scream for help. “The flames had reached the terrace when the men spotted a wooden ladder which they used to scale the wall,” said neighbour Tinku, who helped pull the men to safety.

Thereafter, it took the firefighters 24 fire tenders and a hydraulic platform to douse the flames over the next six hours.