NEW DELHI, Dec. 9 -- Lawmakers in India's upper house of parliament Rajya Sabha on Monday observed a two-minute silence over the death of 43 people in Sunday's massive fire that broke out in an illegally-operated building in north Delhi.
The four-storey building is located in the middle of a congested residential area. Media reports said among the dead four were charred to death while the rest died of suffocation as they couldn't run to safety.
Raw materials like paper, cardboard, and plastic used in manufacturing school bags and other packaging boxes, caught fire and emitted toxic gases, particularly carbon monoxide leading to instant deaths of the inmates.
There was only one narrow staircase leading to all the floors of the building, giving no space for the inmates to escape to safety.
The fire incident once again triggered a political debate over the thousands of decades-old buildings located in various parts of Delhi where illegal commercial activities are being carried out right under the nose of government agencies.
Most of those died were poor laborers from northern state of Uttar Pradesh and eastern state of Bihar, who came to Delhi in search of a livelihood. The gory incident also opened up a pandora's box about the inhuman conditions in which these laborers work in small cubicles lacking proper ventilation and basic necessities.
The ill-fated building was cramped and dingy with no proper ventilation and no emergency escape routes. It was never cleared by any government agency as a commercial building allowing industrial activities.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)-North had recently issued a "notice" to the building owner to shut down the commercial activities inside the building, but it was never complied with and the local government agencies failed to take a strict action thereafter, reported the English daily Hindustan Times.
Also, the building lacked proper fire-fighting measures as its owner never applied for a valid license from the fire department fearing it would attract uncomfortable posers from the firemen. All the windows in the building had iron grills, and the inmates who were sleeping when the fire broke out, had no chance to run for safety. Firemen had to cut the iron-grills in a bid to rescue the laborers who were caught unawares.
The area housing the building was too congested to allow the fire-tenders gain access to douse the fire. The lane leading to the building was too narrow for majority of fire-tenders. Only one fire-fighting vehicle could enter it and had to reverse to come out before allowing the rest.
To assuage the pains of the fire victims, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a compensation of one million Indian rupees for the next of the kin who died and 100,000 Indian rupees for those injured. He also offered free medical treatment for the injured admitted in various hospitals.
Delhi has a long and scary history of fire mishaps. Only in February this year, a major fire in a hotel in central Delhi's Karol Bagh area had claimed as many as 17 lives. The ill-fated hotel too had a single entry-and-exit route and operated without requisite clearances from the fire department.
In January last year, 17 persons died in a similar mishap in an illegal unit manufacturing fire-crackers in west Delhi. As many as 57 people had died in a major fire that broke out in a chemical market complex in Lal Kuan area of old Delhi.
The worst tragedy had occurred in 1997 when 59 people watching a film in a cinema-hall died, and over 100 injured, in a fire in south Delhi. The cinema hall too lacked proper fire-fighting paraphernalia even as emergency exits were shut leaving no escape route for those caught in the fire.
Commercial buildings not complying with local rules and bye-laws, particularly license from the fire department, is quite rampant in the Indian capital. It is common knowledge that ruling political parties often turn a blind eye to such illegal buildings operating without proper licenses and permissions, fearing they might "lose votes" in future elections.
According to rough estimates, there are around 12,000 buildings in Delhi housing illegal industrial units, with most of them running out of residential areas. In 2003, the country's apex court, the Supreme Court of India had ordered shutting of all industrial units that had come up in non-conforming areas after August 1990. But even in 2019 the process of sealing such industrial units hasn't been completed.