Fire at Mukherjee Nagar: Delhi Police books PG facility owner

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has booked the owner of a women’s paying guest facility in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area where a fire broke out on Wednesday and 35 people, including a four-year-old girl, were rescued.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Jitender Meena said the five people who were admitted to a hospital as they had inhaled fumes were out of danger and they would be discharged shortly.

“We have registered an FIR against the paying guest owner under IPC sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention),” the officer said.

Another senior police officer said 17-18 people, including the girls staying in the building, managed to escape when the fire broke out. Their medical examination has been conducted and statements have been recorded, he added.

While the fire department sent 20 fire tenders to the site, only eight could reach the spot because of traffic congestion and narrow lanes.

Civic authorities have ordered a survey of the paying guest facilities located in all wards of the Civil Lines zone in the wake of the fire incident.

The fire started from an electric metre in the stilt area where old furniture and a rickshaw were parked, according to a report received from the site, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said in a statement.

Directions were issued to the zonal building department to open their office on Thursday and “conduct a survey of PGs in all wards of the Civil Lines zone” of the MCD, it added.

A girl staying at the paying guest accommodation said she could not sleep the whole night after the horrifying incident.

She said the building has fire extinguishers but they do not know how to operate those. Another UPSC aspirant from Rajasthan’s Bikaner who lives at a nearby paying guest accommodation, said some girls came to their building to sleep at night. She said she was not present there at the time of the incident, but saw that the building was covered in black soot after the incident. With pti inputs