Four persons, including two women, were charred to death and one sustained burn injuries after a fire broke out at a cloth factory in Karol Bagh on Monday afternoon, the police said. The owner of the factory has been arrested in connection with the case.
The police said that the factory was being run illegally.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Amit Sharma said that the deceased have been identified as Bhagan Prasad (55), Ram Naresh (40), Aarti (26), and Asha (40) and the injured person as Ajit (23). The owner of the factory, Ajay Khurana (45), has been arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Mr. Sharma said.
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“The owner was asked to produce documents obtained from the Fire Department, but he is yet to do so. Also, the factory was running at a residential complex,” Mr. Sharma said.
Sitting inthe emergency ward at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Mr. Ajit, a resident of Patel Nagar, said that around 12.15 p.m., he and six others — three women and three men — were working at the factory, when he heard of a short circuit and clothes catching fire. “Within seconds, the fire engulfed the entire room. I ran towards the main door of the factory, which is on the first floor, while the others ran towards the wall at the back. They thought they would get out from the windows but those were locked and they got stuck,” he said. He said he had asked the others to come out, but they could not reach the door. Mr. Ajit has been working at the factory for nearly a year.
The police, however, said that Mr. Ajit had put a solvent in the spray machine and that led to the fire.
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Mr. Ajit and Mr. Khurana tried to douse the fire using an extinguisher, which was present at the factory, but to no avail.
Parmanand Jalutria (43), a resident of the area, said he was told by Mr. Khurana that the fire was caused by a solvent used in ironing and finishing of clothes. “Clothes of children were manufactured at the factory and unfinished clothes of adults were brought here for finishing, packaging and ironing. The solvent that they used was inflammable and is suspected to have led to the fire. We saw smoke coming out of the windows of the factory,” he said, adding that Mr. Khurana, who was in his office in an adjoining building, helped two persons come out.
Narrow streets
The Fire Department was called at 12.22 p.m. Two fire tenders were rushed by 12.50 p.m. Mr. Jalutria said that the streets are so narrow that the fire tenders could not reach the factory. “The fire tenders were parked on the backstreet. We opened doors of houses in between for the pipe to reach the factory,” he said. Locals said that the situation could be brought under control as most of the markets here stay shut on Mondays.