28 injured, 175 huts gutted in two Delhi fires
By IANSTuesday, April 13, 2010
NEW DELHI - As many as 28 people were injured and 175 slum dwellings gutted in two incidents of fires in Delhi Tuesday, officials said.
At least 28 people, including 21 children and four women, suffered burns in a blaze caused by a leaking gas cylinder at a tea shop in Shalimar Bagh in northwest Delhi.
In the other incident, 175 slum dwellings were gutted in Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi. However, no one suffered any injuries in this blaze, which was brought under control in one and a half hours, according to a fire official.
Meanwhile, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)’s standing committee chairman Ram Kishan Singhal directed Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra to ensure that no commercial activities are run in slum areas.
Demanding the resettlement of slum inhabitants at safer places, Singhal said he had urged the Delhi government dozens of times about this but to no avail.
The national capital region witnessed some major fires in the last few days, some estimates putting the total losses at Rs.150 crore.
A fire in Mundka plastic scrapyard in northwest Delhi Sunday destrioyed goods worth Rs.50 crore, while some estimates put the value of goods burnt in the fire at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Tughlakaabad Saturday at over Rs.100 crore.
Delhi Fire Services director R.C. Sharma told IANS that the fires were caused not only due to the intense heat wave in the national capital but mischief could also be the cause in some cases.
“The heat wave makes things more combustible,” he said, adding that people should be made aware of the risk of fire and the means to svoid these dangers and ways to escape.
–Indo Asian News Service
