A day after Dussehra, a lane in Gandhi Nagar -- one of Delhi’s busiest and biggest textile market -- bore a deserted look, with locked cloth stores and godowns. At 5.40 pm on 5 October, a massive fire erupted, and engulfed around eight shops across three buildings. The Delhi Fire Service dispatched 35 fire tenders and 150 firefighters.
The charred body of a 19-year-old man was found inside one of the shops the next morning. "The major problem we encountered was no water source nearby, and narrow lanes due to which the fire tenders had to be parked far away," said Delhi Fire Chief Atul Garg.
On Thursday, The Quint visited the market, and spoke to traders who lamented about "yet another blow to their business after COVID-19, and lockdown" and a "loss of crores."
'Brother Heard Trapped Man's Voice As Fire Went On': DCP
DCP (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram told The Quint that the victim's body was found on the second floor of a four-storey building. Police has presumed that the victim is 19-year-old Shehnawaz, and a Forensic Science Lab (FSL) team has been called to inspect the spot.
The DCP said, "The victim's brother Aftab, who works in the same shop, said that after closing the shop on Dussehra at about 5.15 pm, he along with four other workers took a break. When they came back, they saw smoke emitting from their shop."
The police said that Aftab called the owner, and realised that his brother was trapped inside the shop. The DCP said, "Aftab heard his brother’s voice while he knocked the door from inside. They attempted to break the locks and told his brother to go upstairs. By the time they broke the lock, fire had spread and Shehnawaz was not traceable."
Meanwhile, Naresh Sikka, General Secretary, Gandhi Nagar Market, said, “The fire started around 6 pm. The fire brigade also came promptly. But the fire was so intense, that the dousing operation went on till 1 am in the night.” On Thursday afternoon, the cooling operation by the DFS was still on.
Sikka said, “We don’t know how the 19-year-old died. As per the owners, they had checked and locked their shops. How the employee stayed behind or why he was there has to be inquired.”
‘Were Expecting Business To Do Good'
Eyewitness Sunil Sharma told The Quint, “We were in the shop right next to the building that caught fire. The fire was so intense that at least eight shops burnt down. There are five buildings together, they are all ruined. Moreover, the financial loss is expected to be in crores.”
This is the first time after 2019 that the Capital is all geared up for the festival season, with Diwali just round the corner. The COVID-19-induced lockdown had quite an impact on small-medium level business owners, including cloth traders of Gandhi Nagar.
Shopkeeper Sandeep Kumar, 35, said, “We were expecting business to be profitable this year. Business was slow because of COVID for two years and now this incident has happened. This year, traders has stocked their shops with more goods.”
Business owner Sharma, who is also an eyewitness, added, “Since the festival season is on, there was pressure on everyone to do good business." He claimed that at first "only two-three fire tenders reached the spot. The smoke is still there, the heat can still be felt in close by shops.”
He added that a few hundred people had gathered, and tried to control the fire. "One side of the building, we tried to douse the flames, and on the other side, the fire department did their job," added Sharma.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted on Wednesday about the incident, calling it "unfortunate." He said that he was in touch with the district administration and was taking stock of the situation.
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