‘Deeply distressed over Palam fire’: CM Rekha Gupta says magisterial probe ordered into incident

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, expressing her deep distress over the unfortunate fire incident in a multi-story residential building at Palam, informed on Wednesday that a magisterial enquiry has been ordered into the incident to probe the cause and other aspects.

A rescue operation is underway under the supervision of the district administration, Delhi Fire Service, and the Delhi Police.
According to the police, at around 7 am, information regarding the fire in a cloth shop located at Ram Market, Palam was received at the local police station. The Station House Officer (SHO), along with his staff, rushed to the spot and found the basement, ground floor and the first floor of the building, a cloth and cosmetics outlet, and the second and third floors where the owner’s family resided gutted.

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During the rescue operation, a total of 12 people were evacuated from the building, nine of whom, including two men, four women, and three children, were declared dead while three survivors are currently under medical treatment in the hospital.
Legal proceedings are underway in the matter while forensic and crime investigation teams have reached the spot.

A Fire Department official had earlier said that nine members of a family were trapped inside the house when the fire broke out.
Two persons reportedly jumped off the building and were rushed to the hospital with injuries. Not long ago, on March 15, a fire broke out within a cluster of 40 temporary commercial shops near the Chhatarpur Metro Station Delhi.
It was at around 0737 hours following the emergency call, six fire units were dispatched initially to the spot.

As the fire spread rapidly through the materials in the shops that included carpets, shawls, sarees, and various handloom materials, the fire officer concerned signaled for escalation, increasing the deployment of fire units.
The DFS had contained the blaze, while there were no reports of any casualties during the operation.