When business triumphs over rulebook to start a fire

Third part of the series on fire safety takes readers to Delhi and the problems of packed shops, faulty wiring and the trend of doing business without NOCs

- ASHISH TIWARI

It's been some days since a fire gutted around 150 shops at the Marwari Katra market of Chandni Chowk, a busy shopping area next to a primary school in the heart of Old Delhi. Initially, some 14 fire tenders were sent to Marwari Katrasprinkled with textile warehouses and plenty of bridal wear shops and then some more had to be called as the fire raged. It took the fire fighters hours to douse the flames. Cinders remain.

Mahesh Kapoor calls inside the market could not be saved. How can you rush in this huge truck inside these narrow lanes?" Electricity himself lucky as his textile shop is right on the main road where the tenders stopped. "The ones who had shops connection was snapped after the fire that is believed to have been caused by a short circuit in a nearby bookshop. The fire department did not report any casualties.

Officials at the site pointed at hanging overhead wires, densely packed shops and near-to-no preparedness among the major hindrances. Even so, the situation now is better compared to 2022 when Bhagirath Palace, a wholesale electrical market in Chandni Chowk, had a massive fire. Narrow lanes packed with inflammable goods, water shortage, and weak buildings were some of the issues back then. The Bhagirath fire, that gutted some 200 shops, took five days to be extinguished.