Delhi: Massive fire breaks out in three-storey building near Mundka metro station, 27 dead, rescue underway

On Friday, 27 people were killed when a fire broke out in a building near Mundka metro station in west Delhi. Fire brigade officials said the number could rise as more people were feared trapped and rescue operations were on. President Ram Nath Kovind has expressed grief over this incident of arson.

As per available information, 27 people have died due to fire in the building near Mundka metro station. Whereas, 12 others were injured. All of them were being treated at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. News agency ANI quoted DCP, Outer District Sameer Sharma as saying that the fire was spread over two floors. “Police force has been deployed along with cordon of the area,” he said.

24 fire tenders are present at the spot to control the fire. Delhi Fire Service (DFS) officials said that a call about the fire was received at 4:40 pm. DFS chief Atul Garg said the fire first started near the metro station’s pillar 544. Initially 10 fire tenders were sent to the spot. Later, another 14 were sent to douse the fire.

According to an ANI report, Delhi Police said that preliminary investigation has revealed that the affected building was generally used for commercial purposes, such as providing office space for companies. “The fire started from the first floor of the building, which houses the office of a company that manufactures CCTV cameras and routers,” a police officer was quoted as saying. Police said the owner of the firm has been taken into custody.

#UPDATE | 20 bodies recovered in the fire at 3-storey commercial building which broke out this evening near Delhi's Mundka metro station, confirms Delhi Fire Director Atul Garg https://t.co/wrX7hoaw6I

— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2022

The help of drone was brought under control in three hours

Seeing the magnitude of the fire, the fire department was taken with the help of drone cameras. Based on the pictures and videos from the drone, the fire brigade targeted the fire sites. After this the fire was brought under control at around 8 pm but the fire was not extinguished. The fire brigade official said that after extinguishing the fire, it will be waited for it to cool down. With this the process of cooling will be started. Then the rescue work will be started.

The building was running without a no-objection certificate from the fire brigade

Upon investigation, it was found that the entire building had not received a no-objection certificate. Police is probing the whole matter. He has taken the owner of the office into custody. At the same time, the owner of the building, Manish Lakra, will also be questioned. The police officer said that an FIR would be registered based on the investigation.

Green corridor built up to the hospital

Since the accident happened on the main road. Due to the ongoing rescue operation, the entire area was blocked. The traffic police got busy in clearing the jam. Meanwhile, the traffic police made a green corridor to take the injured who came out of the building to the hospital. This corridor was built from Mundka to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. Due to this, ambulances could reach the injured to the hospital without any traffic jam. At present, the traffic police was engaged in maintaining traffic order till late night.