Tuesday, April 20, 1999 1 dead, 500 jhuggies destroyed in Delhi fire EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, APRIL 19: Barely five hours after the fire service managed to control the massive fire that raged through the Sadar Bazaar area, a medium fire gutted as many as 500 jhuggis near the Jangpura-B area in South Delhi this morning. The second floor of the Missionaries of Charity building, adjoining the jhuggis, was also gutted. In another incident, one person died in a fire in a paints factory in Gokulpuri. Naresh Kumar was a labourer in Bajrang Paints. The fire broke out around 1.30 pm. Kumar suffered 100 per cent burn injuries and died on the spot. The eight injured in the Jangpura fire were rushed to hospital. They have been identified as Mumtaz, her three-year-old daughter Tania, Haroon, Abdul, Hameela Begum, Babloo and Chandna Bano. One fireman, Rajinder, also received injuries. Mumtaz was cooking when her gas cylinder exploded. She has been admitted to AIIMS and is in critical condition. The fire, which broke at the Balmiki Mandir Jhuggi camp behind Rajdoot Hotel in Jangpuraaround 10.45 am, was brought under control by the fire department by 1.25 pm with the help of 20 fire tenders. The fire, which spread rapidly to the other jhuggis, was helped along by the wind and combustible materials lying around in the ragpickers' colony. Angered by the fire service's slow reaction to their calls for help, slum-dwellers resorted to stone pelting. The police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to bring things under control. Meanwhile, many jhuggi dwellers jumped into the drain behind the camp, but could do nothing to save their belongings. Said a dejected Kale: ``I´ve lost everything in this fire. If only the fire service had been quicker the loss would not have been so great.´´ There were no immediate confirmed reports available about loss of life or damage to property. Residents say that some children were still trapped inside their houses. But Amod Kanth, Joint Commissioner of Police, Southern Range, told The Indian Express that nobody was trapped inside. DelhiChief Minister Sheila Dikshit visited the spot and announced a compensation of Rs 1,000 per jhuggi. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate of the area told The Indian Express that about 100 tents will be put up for the victims and directions will be passed to the Jal Board to provide water to the area. The Delhi Vidyut Board has also been told to install flood lights, he said. Over at the Missionaries of Charity, which was also affected by the fire, ``When we heard the explosion, we swung into action to save the 60 handicapped children in the house,´´ said one sister. Unfortunately, she and other sisters could not save the store room and the its stock including clothes, medicines, food and milk. The fire which spread rapidly, engulfed the two store rooms on the second floor. At about 10.30 a.m., there was chaos in the Missionaries of Charity. As the fire destroyed the jhuggis, the sisters did not know how to react. And if it weren't for residents from the nearby area, the damage would havebeen much more. They were the first ones to reach the spot, helped rescue children and even arranged langar food for them from the nearby gurdwara. Said Indermohan: ``The children were so scared that they hid inside the bathroom. We had to carry many of them to safety.´´ The helpers came from all over, from Jangpura, Pant Nagar, and Nizammuddin areas. They carried buckets of water from their houses to douse the fire. Many even stood atop of their houses and threw water on the flames. ``I live in the jhuggis across the drain, but when I saw the smoke billowing out from the camp, I rushed here to help,'' said Mohammad Salim. ``We had to be careful. Firstly, because the children were handicapped and also because of the clouds of suffocating smoke,´´ said another helper. The locals took the children to the nearby Ganga Automobile Service Station. The second course of action for the locals was to protect the building from the fire. Armed with buckets of water, the people went to worksaving the structure. The sisters complained about the inefficiency of the fire department and one of the sisters told The Indian Express: ``The fire department was slow to react.´´ Getting the water up to the second floor was not easy and the residents took two hours to extinguish the fire. At the end of it all, the floor was a heap of burnt woollens and biscuit packets. Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. Top