A recipe for disaster

India is home to numerous illegal sites that overlook safety regulations. While accidents are improbable they aren't impossible and when they do happen the results can be devasting just like in the case of the '2019 Delhi factory fire' that took the lives of more than 40 people.

The ruins that remained at the end of the 2nd most disastrous fire accident in Delhi; Image source: womeninandbeyong.org

It was a quiet morning like any other at the residential complex in the congested Anaj Mandi area of Delhi. Only this residential place wasn't being used for residence purposes. No, it was actually a four-storey building in which school bags and shoes were produced by over 100 employees who were sleeping when a fire broke out.

The fire department got a call at exactly 5:22 am on 8th December 2019 and the Delhi Fire Service reached the location within 5 minutes. But alas, the intensity of fire had already heightened cutting off most entry points. Not to mention the people who were awakened by the fire but they had no proper way of escape as the exits were partially blocked and windows were sealed shut.

Not only did the factory lacked a proper escape route but was full of combustible material like plastic goods, cardboard, rexine and other packaging material which aggravated the fire suffocating the people inside.

Gas cutters had to cut the iron grilles in order to rescue people. 150 firemen took nearly 5 hours to help rescue 63 people. Unfortunately, at least 43 people lost their lives one of which was a minor and nearly 56 people were injured. Some injured were sent to nearby hospitals on auto-rickshaw.

The evacuation was not at all for faint hearts. The workers were looking for their family members who were also employed in the factory. An elderly man frantically looked for his nephews who were in a different room than him, both of whom were found dead. The 43 people who died were brought dead to the hospital. The leading cause of death was smoke inhalation while some of them were charred.

The cause of the fire seems to be a short circuit that emerged on the second floor of the four-storey building.

The compensation to the kin of the dead and the injured people were given by both the state government and the central government. The governments among themselves kept on pointing fingers at each other at whose fault this was and the media kept on interviewing weeping relatives. The truth is no compensation can cover the fact that the accident was no less than a planned murder. The narrow roads, inaccessible streets, the sealed building was ticking bomb and the people who sacrificed were migrant labourers from states like Bihar and Jharkhand who had no choice but to accept these terrible working conditions.

That factory broke several codes endangering their employees and eventually claiming their lives in the horrific accident. It was a factory, made in a residential area with no safety regulations in place. The property owner and manager of the factory were arrested and booked under negligent conduct with respect to fire and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

This accident became the second deadliest fire accident in Delhi after the 1997 Uphaar Cinema accident that claimed 69 lives. Such incidents are not uncommon in India though. Most accidents don't turn as deadly as this event but we cannot wave off the fact that employees in the informal sector are being subjected to extremely hazardous and life-threatening conditions.

Lack of jobs forces people to take up jobs even with such awful conditions, even minors in some cases. The government must protect the lives of workers and provide them with safe working conditions. Every informal sector must adhere to the rules of safety regulations. After all, it is the employees that make up a business.