Fire breaks out at girls’ hostel; six hospitalised

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 29

Six girls were hospitalised while another 50 were safely evacuated after a fire broke out in a girls' hostel near the Janakpuri Metro Station in west Delhi this morning.

The fire broke out in the basement of Kaveri Girls hostel. Eight fire tenders were sent to bring the flame under control and it was brought under control by 3.30 am, said a Delhi Fire Service (DFS) official said.

"The fire was reported at 3.5 am. More than 50 girls have been evacuated and six others have been admitted to a nearby hospital due to smoke inhalation," Atul Garg, DFS director said, adding that two of them were discharged after first aid.

It is suspected that the fire broke out in an electric panel installed in the basement and soon it spread to the ground and first floors the official said. Thick smoke started billowing out and engulfed the entire hostel. More than 50 other hostellers were evacuated safely.

About 50 working women and students stay in the hostel, a police official said. The injured girls are in ICU at Arya hospital in Janakpuri. All the girls are from outside Delhi. They were preparing for medical examinations and enrolled as a student with a coaching academy in the area, the official said.

The incident came days after 23 teenage students, including 16 girls, were killed in a blaze at a coaching centre in the Sarthana area of Surat in Gujarat.

In the wake of the Surat tragedy, the Delhi government on Monday has directed the fire department of the city to take immediate action for "closing down" coaching institutes operating above the fourth floor in buildings in violation of fire safety norms. The government has ordered the department to inspect coaching centres operating from high-rise buildings and to shutdown any facility, including commercial establishments that run out without fire safety measures, fire department official said. Fire officials have been instructed to conduct sudden raids in various commercial establishments, including hotels, restaurants to check whether fire safety measures were put in place in those places.

Yesterday, a fire broke out in a light bulb manufacturing factory at Udyog Nagar in the Peera Garhi area.

On May 27, a fire had broken out on the fifth floor of a doctors' hostel at the premises of GB Pant hospital. However, no injury or casualty was reported in the incident.

In February, a massive blaze at Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh had claimed lives of 17 people, and prompting DFS authorities to conduct inspection of over 300 hotels in the area.