Inferno renders 300 people homeless in central Delhi

A cluster of around 125 huts were gutted, no one injured

Police said a cluster of around 125 huts was gutted in the fire that broke out in a slum located at Mata Sundari Colony near Ranjit Singh flyover. No one was injured. It took around three hours for 27 fire tenders to douse the blaze.

“We received a call about the incident at 2:40 am. Two fire tenders reached the spot in next seven minutes but the inferno started spreading rapidly,” Chief Fire Officer A K Sharma told Deccan Herald. Twenty-five more engines were deployed in no time and the fire was brought under control after a three-hour battle.

Houses of an estimated 300 people—  rickshaw-pullers, vendors, hawkers, barbers and labourers—were destroyed, Sharma said.

“We were sleeping and all of a sudden we heard a loud noise. When I came out to check, I saw fire all around. All my belongings were lying in my small hut and the fire has destroyed everything,” a victim said. Another resident of the colony said: “We first saw a small paper scrap warehouse between the slum clusters in flames. Before I could do anything, the blaze spread to our hut. I rushed in to rescue my children.”

Later in the day, the Delhi government officials built temporary shelters and arranged food for the slum dwellers.

Police said no one was injured in the incident. The exact cause of the fire is not known.