1 dead, six injured in factory fire in east Delhi’s New Mustafabad

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A 42-year-old man was charred to death while at least six others, including a woman, suffered serious burns on Thursday noon after a fire broke out following an explosion in a factory in north-east Delhi’s New Mustafabad area, police and fire officials said.

Local residents said the explosion was so loud that they thought it was a bomb or a building has collapsed. Though the exact reason behind the blast and fire was still being probed, the police and fire officials suspected that the explosion may have taken place in a gas cylinder or in the compressor of a powder coating plant that was installed on the first floor of the factory building.

The factory manufactured and painted air cooler fan blades and metallic bodies of stabilizers and inverters.

All the seven victims were workers at the factory that was operating without fire clearances and mandatory licence from the municipal body in a two-storey dilapidated building spread in a 200 square yard area in the congested residential neighbourhood at Street number-23 in New Mustafabad.

Officials said while Inderjeet Pandey, 42, was severely burnt and succumbed to his wounds at the hospital, the other six injured workers also suffered burns all over their bodies. The condition of the woman, identified as Usnara, and at least two others were said to be critical at the Jag Pravesh Chandra hospital, police said.

An eighth worker named Sonu was inside the bathroom on the first floor when the explosion took place. Sonu told the media persons that he jumped off the first floor and suffered fractures in his legs. The other injured workers were identified as Gulfam, Aamir, Babul, Bilal and Shamim, all residents of Mustafabad. Pandey lived with his family in Sonia Vihar and he worked as a painter in the factory.

The building and the factory was owned by a resident of Babarpur in northeast Delhi, police said.

The impact of the explosion was such that a nearly 30×10 feet iron grille installed at the balcony of the building’s first floor got damaged and fell down in the lane outside the factory. At least three houses adjacent the factory building developed cracks, a parked motorcycle was damaged, while the glass counter of a grocery shop shattered due to the impact of the explosion. Locals said they sprayed water using pipes and buckets to douse the flames and rescue the workers who were trapped inside the factory.

“We felt a tremor and rushed out of the building. At first, we thought there was bomb blast in our neighbourhood as there was dust and smoke all around. Some locals screamed that a building had collapsed due to an earthquake. It was only after a couple of minutes that the dust settled down and we saw fire and smoke coming out of the factory building,” said Mohammad Ashfaq, who lives with his family in a three-storey building across the factory building.

Delhi Fire Service (DFS) chief Atul Garg said that the fire control room received a call at 12.17 pm regarding a fire in a factory near Akbari Masjid Road in New Mustafabad. Six fire tenders were rushed to the fire spot. “A total of seven people were rescued from the building. One of them was dead while another was critically injured. The others also had burns. The factory did not have a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department,” said Garg.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said, “The woman, Usnara, had serious burns. We are probing if the factory was illegal and running without mandatory clearances from the authorities. The cause of the fire is also being ascertained.”

The incident comes six days after a devastating fire in a factory at a Mundka building killed 27 people.

East Delhi Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said that an inquiry committee will be formed to probe into the matter. “The unit did not have a licence to operate. It had been challaned. We will check if there was any lapse on the part of zonal officials for not sealing the premises. Only certain household trades are allowed in residential areas and this unit was illegal,” he added.

A senior east East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) official said that as pre the preliminary inquiry, it has been learnt that the factory was operating in a residential area without any licence. “It was a unit working in manufacturing fan blades, motor and welding related work and it seems that the fire was caused due to cylinder blast not due to a short circuit. The unit lies in non-conforming area and it was operating illegally. A challan had also been issued to the unit and show cause notice had been issued. We are waiting for detailed inquiry report,” the official said.

Pandey, who was the sole earning members in the family, is survived by his wife and three children. His elder son Ashutosh Pandey,24, said that his father often told them about the bad condition of the factory where he had been working for nearly 11 years.

“My father’s colleague Sonu called me at 1.27 pm and informed that a blast and fire took place at the factory. When I asked him about the condition of my father, Sonu asked me to check by myself. I went to Jag Pravesh Chand hospital, where I was told that my father has died,” Ashutosh said, adding that his father earned 11,000 per month.

In a separate incident, fire broke out at a plastic tape and thinner manufacturing factory in Bawana Industrial Area around 11.30am. No injuries were reported in the incident.


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