A major tragedy was averted after 40 people were rescued from a building in East Delhi when a fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday, an official said.
Plastic waste materials were stored on the ground floor of the four-storey building in Krishna Nagar area, while people lived on the upper floors and it had only a single staircase, Delhi Fire Services director Atul Garg said.
Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot after receiving a call at 2.10 am about the blaze. All the residents went to the terrace as the fire broke out and, therefore, the rescue operation was easy as compared to other such incidents, the official said.
Forty people were rescued from the building and the fire was doused by 4 am, the official said.
The fire personnel were informed that the residential building houses a godown on the ground floor, he added.
A 33-year-old labourer, Rajuba, who lived with her family on the second floor of the building said, I was sleeping with my husband and our son when I sensed smoke in the room. I woke up and went to the window and saw fire near the door on the ground floor. I alerted my family and a few others. We went to the terrace. A few of the men jumped to the adjacent building while we waited for the firemen, who then used ladders and ropes to rescue us.
After reaching the spot, the fire-fighters noticed that the ground floor was completely filled with scraps. While some of them were packed in gunny bags, other plastic waste materials occupied the rest of the space, a fire official said.
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"We heard people screaming for help from the terrace. We immediately split our personnel into two teams. While one team was trying to control the fire, the other team rushed to the upper floors to rescue those trapped inside the building," said Santosh Kumar, Station Officer of Delhi Fire Services Mandwali unit.
Since the building was located in a congested narrow lane, only one fire tender was rushed inside the lane while others were stationed outside. The building had a single staircase that was narrow and could be used by one man at a time, he said.
The fire started from the scrap situated on the ground floor of the building while the smoke engulfed the upper floors.
On sensing smoke, those sleeping on the upper floors rushed to the terrace while others were rescued from the first and second floors of the building, he said.
"Since none of the doors of the rooms or the terrace were locked, we managed to quickly rush to the upper floors and rescue 40 people including women and children trapped inside the building and his team rescued people and carried most of them on their backs" Kumar added.