Delhi Fire Tragedy Shows Nothing Has Improved Over The Years

The horrific Delhi inferno which claimed the lives of at least 43 people is yet another chilling reminder of the fact that we simply refuse to learn. It was said of the Bourbons that they learnt nothing and forgot nothing. Are we any different? In June 1997, a massive fire in the Uphar cinema theatre of the Green Park area in the national capital claimed the lives of 59 innocent people. In May 1999, 57 people were killed and 27 injured in a massive fire in the Lal Kuan chemical market of the Old Delhi area. Yet no lessons seem to have been drawn from such disasters which repeat themselves with painful regularity mainly due to greed of businessmen and apathy of the officials in question, not to speak of their direct collusion.

Close to 150 people were sleeping in a five-storeyed structure in the Anaj Mandi area of central Delhi when the blaze broke out early Sunday morning. Gut-wrenching reports have emerged of trapped workers making their last calls to their family members or friends, with the sure realization that they would meet their end in a few minutes. Among those killed were children, trafficked illegally from Bihar, West Bengal and eastern UP to work in the illegal units being run there.

The trigger for the blaze is said to have been a short circuit which turned the place with a slew of illegal manufacturing units and warehouses into a veritable gas chamber choking the hapless workers trapped inside, to death. In many dingy rooms of the building, these illegal enterprises were filled with combustible materials such as cardboard, paper and plastic making it difficult for the firefighters to move through the building to find people. All it took was a faint flicker for the inferno to sweep through the place charring precious human lives in a flash. Little did the workers imagine that they would be burnt alive or die of choking on carbon monoxide in their workplace, where they also slept, to save costs in one of the most expensive metropolises of India. To make matters worse, the building had just one narrow access point turning it into a challenge for firemen and adding to the cost of the tragedy—only one of the forty fire engines rushed to the scene of the tragedy could enter the narrow lane.

Why can't the government enforce fire safety norms for residential as well as industrial units? Evidently, nothing has changed in more than two decades. We will see the usual drill play itself out over the next few days—a probe, debates and discussions, followed by collective amnesia. As for investigation and trial, we are all too familiar with the pace at which they unfold. Political grandstanding and one-upmanship is yet another natural and ugly corollary of these tragedies, notwithstanding the bitter truth that all ruling parties have failed the people on this count.