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The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said a call was received around 10.40 pm regarding the fire. DFS chief Atul Garg said on Monday morning, “Initially, six fire tenders were rushed to the site. Later, the fire call was upgraded to ‘serious’… the fire is under control now. No injuries or casualties are reported.”
When The Indian Express visited the area on Monday, it found firemen battling the layout of Chandni Chowk as much as the fire. While the building continued to emit smoke, personnel worked to keep the smouldering interior from rising in temperature again in a “cooling operation”.
They were hampered by the layout of the area, sandwiched on one side by a park and shops on the other, and having to drive through a road only a couple of metres wider than their fire tenders. They could not enter the building itself, as the prolonged fire, fed overnight by the textiles within, had caused a portion of it collapse, forcing them to hose it down from the outside.
According to Divisional Officer Rajender Atwal, the narrow lanes meant they had to route their hoses through a nearby park. Garg added, “As there is a tree on one side of the road, fire tenders could only move in reverse. Because of this, we had to pause for 10-15 minutes around 6 am to replace the tenders which had been constantly operating for several hours.”
The narrow lanes also meant the DFS was also unable to deploy some of its most advanced equipment —remote-controlled firefighting robots. Atwal said, “Because of the rubble from the collapse earlier and the narrowness of the road, we didn’t have enough space to use the robots.” His shift was the third to work on containing the fire since it broke out the previous night.
At 6 pm, Garg said: “Cooling operations may continue for 5 to 10 hours more.”
Meanwhile, local traders said dozens of shops behind the building might also be affected, causing huge financial losses. Most of these were textile shops at Kacha Natwa cloth market.
Rajender Malhotra, proprietor of R.V Traders, said: “My shop and stock have been completely destroyed. I have insurance, but there is so much damage that it’ll not cover all the loss… The situation is worse as we had kept a lot of stock ready inside the shop for Diwali, anticipating good sales.
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