Blowback as Delhi office block inferno kills 27 in “fire-trap” capital city

At least 27 people were killed in an inferno that charred an office block in Delhi. Yet another blaze in the capital and a spurt of fires in Mumbai has ignited calls for greater safety in projects to re-fit cities with modern comfort. 

Dozens were also injured in the four-storied office block where the victims were assembling security cameras and internet routers, police said, adding 21 of those killed were female employees. 

The death toll was likely to rise about 30 as many of those hurt were in critical condition. 

The government offered compensation to relatives of those killed in the building which had no clearance from the fire department or had even installed fire extinguishers. 

Pinku Kumar, a cab driver, was scouring hospitals for his sister-in-law missing since Friday's blaze, the deadliest in Delhi since a fire at a grain market killed 44 people in 2019. 

“We came here taking it to be a safe city but how wrong I was,” sobbed Asha, who watched in horror as her daughter-in-law stranded in the building screamed for help. 

Fire-trap Delhi 
A blaze tore through a city factory a day after the office block inferno and on Monday night a fire broke out at a construction site in the heart of Delhi. 

Experts say several of the estimated 5,200 high-rise buildings have violated safety rules in Delhi, which posted 591 fire-related deaths in the year ended 31 March, up from 346 casualties the previous year. 

A 1997 blaze in a movie theatre killed 57 film-goers in the deadliest ever fire in India's capital. 

“The number of incidents has multiplied much more than what they were 25 years back,” said Neelam Krishnamoorthy who lost her two children in the cinema fire. 

“We are moving forward in a lot of new things... but we want the government to bring in laws to avert such tragedies,” the mother-turned campaigner added. 

Smart City 
The experts say 'safety first' should be the motto of India's grand project to convert 100 urban centres into “smart cities” by 2023. 

“We are a broken system as far as fire safety is concerned,” said Uday Vijayan, president of Beyond Carlton, a public safety charity. 

“Just look around, there are unauthorised buildings, no awareness of fire safety and no compliance whether it is fire or electrical safety and fire departments have very poor infrastructure,” he told a TV debate. 

The warning came as the authorities published a list of 75 outfitted cities. 

The government says some 800 million Indians will occupy urban spaces by 2050, up by 200 million in two decades. 

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri recently said the smart city project launched in 2015 aimed to discourage “urban slums.” 

“We have said 'please don't look at smart city and urbanisation as a problem, view it as an opportunity,'” Puri added. 

India has now set a larger target of expanding the project into a national mission by transporting technologies to all its 4,000 cities. 

“Sure, we are taking care of rules and regulations but we must remain vigilant as safety is an area that often gets neglected,” said a Delhi-based architect. 

On Monday, a blaze erupted in a courthouse in Mumbai --- the fifth such accident in 20 days in the country's business hub which in 2018 was ranked as India's second city with maximum number of deadly electrical short-circuits. 

Fire accidents have killed 35 Indians every day between 2016 and 2020.