Two people lost their lives in a fire at Karol Bagh’s Vishal Mega Mart on Friday. One of them was a 25-year-old civil services aspirant, and other was a 30-year-old lab technician. The Delhi Fire Department says the building where the fire broke out did not have a valid fire safety certificate, which shows the lack of safety rules. Police have registered a case of negligence following the incident, leading to public outrage and demands for strict action against the culprits.
The victims were identified as Kumar Dhirendra Pratap Singh and Pawan Gautam. Singh, who hailed from Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh, got trapped in a lift during the fire and died of suffocation. Pawan Gautam, who hailed from Aligarh and was an ITI graduate, worked as a lab technician. His body was found on the second floor of the building.
The Delhi Fire Service was informed about the fire at 6:44 pm. Minutes later, Singh’s brother Vikram received an emotional message from him, in which he said he was trapped in the lift and suffocated. Vikram told the Times of India that at 6:51 pm his brother texted, “Save me somehow, I am stuck in the lift. There is a lot of suffocation, I am having trouble breathing.”
Vikram, who was in Sonbhadra, immediately sent one of his brother’s friends to the spot. The friend went and appealed to the authorities to check the lift, but was told that the check had been done and the lift was empty. Eventually, Singh’s body was recovered at 2:30 am on Saturday. Vikram said that when he saw his brother, he was unconscious, had taken off his shirt and was wearing only a vest – possibly to avoid the smoke, he had covered his face with the shirt. An emotional Vikram said, “I wish I was there and could have saved him.”
Singh was studying for 4-5 hours in a nearby library before the incident. His brother Vikram recalled, “He was a very good-hearted person. Our mother is a teacher in a government school in UP and he used to help teach children when he came to the village.”
The fire broke out in the multi-storey building that houses Vishal Mega Mart. The fire destroyed everything from the basement to the third floor. The building had only two staircases and one lift, and there was no proper ventilation, with only one main entrance door open. Initial investigations revealed that the fire was caused by a short circuit on the second floor.
The fire brigade faced great difficulties in dousing the fire due to lack of ventilation. Firefighters tried to enter inside by breaking the upper floors with JCB machines. 15 fire engines and 90 firefighters were deployed to control the fire.
