New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Several blasts ripped through the paint factory in Alipur and chemicals that sparked the fire made it tough for locals to douse the blaze, which soon spread to several adjacent houses.
Vijay Kumar was one of the first ones to see smoke billowing out of the Alipur factory and rush to douse the fire that ended up claiming 11 lives.
Kumar, who lives in the street next to the factory, said that the incident took place around 4.45 pm with several explosions.
“I was at my house when I heard a loud sound. Later I found that a massive fire was raging in the paint factory. There was some thinner-type chemical in the factory and it flowed through a drain. The fire engulfed some nearby properties also.
“It was also very difficult to douse the chemical blaze. We tried to control the blaze using fire extinguishers and with the help of sand, but did not succeed. The fire tenders came here more than one hour late,” he said.
Kumar said he has 40 members in his family and he first took them out of his house to a safe place.
“When the fire was doused around 10 pm, we saw several victims lying in a room. The owner of the factory was also present inside the premises and lost his life. It seems like the gate of his room was ripped open after the blast and he got stuck inside his office.
“It was a very scary scene when we saw bodies lying on each other. It seems that they went to the corner of the factory to save themselves and died during the fire,” he said.
Another local said that three kids of his neighbour who used to work in the factory are missing since the fire incident.
“I was out for a walk near my house when I heard a blast and saw thick smoke coming out of the factory. It was such a powerful explosion that one could hear it from a distance of several kilometres. My neighbour’s three kids used to work in the factory and they have been missing since the incident took place,” he said.
A 10-year-old boy said that his mother Mira, who used to work in the factory, was missing too.
Locals helped him find his mother, but in vain.
Kumar said the firemen were taking out bodies from the factory till 4 am.
Eleven people died and four got injured following an explosion and subsequent fire in a paint factory in outer Delhi’s Alipur area Thursday evening.
The charred bodies of the 11 victims, 10 men and one woman, were recovered from the factory, which also houses chemical godowns, located in Alipur’s Dayalpur market, a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official said. PTI NIT NIT VN VN
