Three workers dead, six injured in Narela food processing unit fire

New Delhi: Three workers were killed and six injured after a fire broke out and caused a blast in a food processing unit in the Narela Industrial Area in the early hours of Saturday, the Delhi Police said.

The police received a distress call at 3:35 am about the fire at the factory of Shayam Kripa Foods Private Limited, which processed dry moong dal, it said.

The fire engulfed the factory, trapping some workers inside, a police officer said.

Fourteen fire tenders were pressed into service and the blaze was doused by noon, a Delhi Fire Services official said.

He said nine people were rescued from the building and admitted to Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital in Narela.

The police officer said three of them — Shyam (24), Ram Singh (30) and Beerpal (42) — were declared dead while the others are undergoing treatment.

The injured — Pushpender (26), Akash (19), Mohit Kumar (21), Ravi Kumar (19), Monu (25) and Lalu (32) are undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital for burn injuries, he added.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the blaze started after a gas leak from one of the pipelines. The pipelines supplied gas to burners used for roasting the moong dal, the officer said.

As the fire spread, it caused the compressor to overheat, resulting in a blast, he said.

The blast was so strong that one wall of a room also collapsed, he added.

The victims’ family members alleged that they worked 12-hour shifts, instead of eight, for Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 per month, depending on their experience.

The factory owners had hired about 20 workers.

Ram Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya, is survived by his wife and a six-year-old daughter.

His uncle Avdhesh Singh said, “His family lives in their native village and was solely dependent on him. He earned about Rs 14,000 a month. Who will take care of them?”

Beerpal’s son Akash said he would help his father run the family by driving a taxi.

“I have a younger brother and two teenage sisters. They are all studying. I don’t know how we will survive now,” Akash said.

Beerpal was a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri but lived in the factory. His family lives in west Delhi’s Nangloi area.

Akash said his father would come home once or twice a month to meet them.

Shyam — a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj — lived on the first floor of the building with the other workers and worked on the ground floor, which housed all the machinery, his cousin Bhola said.

He had a night shift on Friday, Bhola added.

The factory owners — Rohini residents Ankit Gupta and Vinay Gupta — were arrested after they failed to provide documents related to the unit, which had been running since 2010, another officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Ravi Kumar Singh said a case under sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.

The owners failed to provide the fire no-objection certificate and it appeared that the factory was running without proper safety measures, he added.