Delhi: Fire Breaks Out At Archies Card Factory Just Days After Hotel Blaze That Killed 17

Soon after a massive fire broke out at Hotel Arpit Palace in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area, a paper card factory, identified as Archies, in Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I in Delhi caught a medium category fire. The flames spread rapidly to the top floor. In order to douse the fire, around 29 fire tenders are present at the spot.

Although there have been no casualties so far, reports say that properties worth lakhs may be damaged by the fire.

#WATCH A medium category fire broke out at a paper card factory in Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I, early morning today; Total 23 fire tenders engaged in fire fighting operations, no casualties reported pic.twitter.com/l6wiOjfELO

— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2019

Factory manager Amarjeet Singh said that the source was a telephone switchboard, which caught the fire that rapidly began spreading, reported NDTV.

Other recent fires

A huge fire broke out at a slum in Paschim Puri area in Delhi on Wednesday, February 13, burning at least 250 huts. Although the fire possibly broke out due to a short circuit, the actual reason is yet to be ascertained.

26 fire tenders rushed to the spot and those who were injured were taken to a hospital. People were forced to spend the night in the cold, on the road, due to the commotion caused by the fire. It took two long hours to douse the fire.

Again on Wednesday, two men were arrested by a Delhi Court in connection with a huge fire that engulfed Arpit Palace Hotel in central Delhi’s Karol Bagh area on Tuesday. As many as 17 people were killed, with two people jumping off the building to save themselves.

On charges of culpable homicide, Rajender and Vikas, the hotel’s general manager and manager respectively, were arrested. Shardendu Goel, the hotel’s owner, is absconding.

Several fires have broken out in Delhi over the recent years. In northwest Delhi’s Bawana industrial area, around 17 people were charred to death by a fire that broke out in a firecracker unit in January 2018.

Two massive fires broke out in April 2018, one in Kohat Enclave where four people were killed, and another in Shahdara’s MS Park which killed a girl and destroyed several shanties. In May 2018, a fire of “highest magnitude” engulfed a godown in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar, but there were no casualties. In November 2018, again in a factory in Karol Bagh, a fire killed four and injured one. In January 2019, a fire at a chemical factory in Okhla Phase-I injured four people. In February 2019, a fire broke out at Noida’s Metro Hospital and Heart Institute, forcing people to evacuate several staff and patients.

Although no casualties have been reported yet in the Archies fire, it did put the lives of several people at risk. It is important that proper measures are taken to ensure that such disasters do not take place, be it in a hotel, a factory or in an ordinary residence.

Also Read: Delhi: Massive Hotel Fire Kills At Least 17 Including A Child; Leaves Many Injured