In the second major fire reported in the Capital on Monday, a three-storey building and several shops were gutted at Kinari Bazaar in Chandni Chowk. The fire had not been put out till late evening.
Area residents blamed a slow response from the fire department who, in turn, attributed the delay in their arrival to the narrow approach road and traffic congestion.
It was around 1-30 p.m. that a transformer in the area blasted and flames erupting from it engulfed the building in the narrow lanes of the Walled City. An eye witness said the transformer crash also brought down a wall surrounding it.
“Oil coming out of the transformer also spread the fire. A woman customer was emerging from my shop and she was partially burnt,” said Neeraj, whose shop was completely gutted.
Neeraj added that fire tenders took nearly an hour to come to the spot. In the meantime he and other shopkeepers made their own effort to contain it. “We tried to douse the flames with whatever little water we had in buckets and water filters but it did not make any major difference,” he added.
Even after the fire officials arrived, they had an argument followed by an altercation with the locals on how to bring the situation under control. This was because fire tenders and cranes were forced to station a few hundred metres away from the burning building.
As fire fighters sprayed water from adjoining buildings, a large crowd gathered to watch them. Since the affected businessmen were angry over the delay, an effort was made by the fire fighters to pacify them by engaging local leaders.
It was Lalit Kashyap, who has a clout in the area, who requested the crowd to keep away from the water pipes using a megaphone. The area residents did not mince words in blaming BSES for not repairing the transformer which caused the blaze. “In the past, we had sent several letters to BSES complaining about this particular transformer. After no response initially, the officials inspected it two months ago. But they did not rectify the problem,” said Sanjeev Jain, a member of the market association.
Although the fire department did not confirm any injuries, Neeraj said he and few other shopkeepers sustained minor burns while rushing out of their shops.
