Four separate fire incidents were reported across Delhi within hours, injuring several people and causing massive damage to shops and properties, officials said. A massive fire broke out at a furniture market near Seelampur Metro station in north-east Delhi on Friday evening, engulfing several furniture shops that mostly operate under tin sheds, according to police and fire department officers. 25 fire engines were used to put out the fire.
Officials said that a small number of local residents pelted a fire engine with stones, claiming that the fire engines arrived late, adding that the windows of a fire engine were also damaged during the stone pelting. Later, a video clip of the incident was widely circulated on social media platforms.
A fire department officer was injured
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officers said the incident occurred at 11.57 pm on Friday. A Field Support Department officer said: “Since the fire was in a crowded market, mostly under tin awnings and with flammable materials such as furniture and adhesives, the fire spread quickly and engulfed many shops.”
A fire department officer was injured after the roof of one of the shops he was standing on collapsed while extinguishing the fire.
A couple and a child suffer from burns
In a second incident, a couple and their one-year-old son suffered burns after they were trapped in their one-room residence, where a fire allegedly broke out due to a leak in a cooking gas cylinder in Ajit Nagar in east Delhi on Saturday afternoon, police said.
Four policemen patrolling the neighborhood noticed the fire and rushed inside the room on the first floor of a multi-storey building and rescued the trapped couple and their young child, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) RB Meena said that while the child suffered serious burns, the condition of three family members was out of danger.
Fire in a shoe store
In a third incident, a fire broke out in a shoe showroom in Kingsway Camp Market in northwest Delhi.
No injuries were reported, but the fire that broke out from the showroom on the ground floor spread to the first and second floors and consumed goods worth thousands of rupees.
Compressor explosion
On the same morning, two workers were injured after a compressor installed on the wall of a cable manufacturing plant in GT Karnal Road industrial area near Adarsh Nagar exploded on Saturday morning.
