Narela factory fire in Delhi kills three, injures six

Three workers were killed and six were injured after a fire caused a blast in a food processing unit in Narela Industrial Area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, the police said.

Three workers were killed and six were injured after a fire caused a blast in a food processing unit in Narela Industrial Area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, the police said.

Police received a PCR call at 3.35 a.m. on early Saturday morning informing them of a blaze that had broken out at a factory of Shyam Kripa Foods Private Limited, which manufactures dry moong dal.

A senior Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said sixteen fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and the blaze was doused at noon. But the fire had engulfed the factory, trapping some workers inside the building, said a police officer.

“Nine workers were rescued from the building and admitted to Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital in Narela, but three of them were declared brought dead,” he said. The deceased were identified as Shyam, 24, Ram Singh, 30, and Beerpal Kumar, 42.

The injured — Pushpender, 26, Akash, 19, Mohit Kumar, 21, Ravi Kumar, 19, Monu, 25, and Lalu, 32 — are undergoing treatment for burns at Safdarjung Hospital, police said.

According to the DFS official, the fire was likely caused by a gas leak from a pipeline. “The pipelines supplied gas to burners used for roasting the moong dal. As the fire spread, it caused the compressor to overheat, resulting in a blast,” he said.

Beerpal Kumar’s son Akash Yadav woke to a call at 6 a.m., wherein his mother called him from Uttar Pradesh’s Nainpuri and informed him of the accident. “I wasn’t aware of the fire. All I knew was that my father was hurt and hospitalised in Narela,” he said, adding that he immediately drove to the hospital on his bike only to learn of his father’s death.