Four workers are missing while six were rescued from a fire that broke out inside a shoe warehouse located in Delhi’s Udhyog Nagar area on Monday morning. Fire officials said that the search and rescue operations are still underway.
Police and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received a call at 8.56 AM about a blaze in a factory but later it came to light that the two-storey building houses a warehouse where shoes are assembled and packed for sale.
Initially ten workers were trapped inside the godown and six of them were rescued. While four of the rescued workers were safe, two others suffered minor burn injuries and were given first aid at the spot.
“Around 24 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and 15 more vehicles were later pressed into service to bring the blaze under control,” said Parvinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Outer district.
“It is suspected that the fire started from the first floor of the building and later spread to other floors,” said police.
A senior police official said that a case has been registered and the owner of the godown has been identified as Pankaj Garg.
According to Atul Garg, the Director, (DFS), a total of 35 fire tenders and around 140 fire personnel have been involved till now in the fire-fighting operations.
“Fire is completely under control now, cooling operation and search operation continues, the building has been declared dangerous by the civic body,” said the DCP.
Elaborating on the challenges faced by the fire-fighters, Garg said the building did not have any fire-safety equipment in place and was heavily jammed with highly combustible materials due to which the fire spreads faster.
“The DFS was not given correct information in the first place that it was a godown and we were not informed that workers were trapped inside. It was only after about two hours into the fire-fighting operation that, we got to know that people were trapped inside when the family members started coming to the spot asking for their men,” said Garg.
“Four more workers are reported to be missing but we still have not been able to trace them. We lost the gold hours when we could have rescued those trapped if information was shared with us in time. Even the fire has been doused but because of heat and smoke, it's become tough to trace those reported missing,” said Garg.
The exact cause of the fire is not known yet but short-circuit is suspected to be the reason.