Thirteen workers died in a fire at a suspected illegal garment factory in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad district, early yesterday as they slept in the workshop.
The blaze started in the early hours of the morning on the ground floor of the narrow residential building, which was being used to make fake leather jackets, on the eastern edge of New Delhi.
Residents rushed to the factory after they heard screams from those trapped inside as the fire quickly spread to the first floor where most of the workers were sleeping, eyewitness Shahabudin Ali said.
“We started dousing the fire ourselves with buckets and garden pipes,” he said. “The fire department officials reached only two hours after the fire.”
The police confirmed that 13 people died, adding that the fire was likely caused either by a short circuit or a cigarette. “The fire broke out at a factory in a residential area of Sahibabad around 4.30am in the morning. Thirteen people, who were sleeping there have died and another two or three people are being treated at the hospital,” Bhagwat Singh, local police spokesman said.
Police superintendent Salman Taj said that three of the victims were burnt to death while the others died of smoke inhalation.
Residents and a local fire officer said that two of the workers survived by jumping from the building’s balcony.
“The two woke up by chance and say they screamed for others to wake up while running towards the terrace but the others didn’t wake up, perhaps it was already late,” local fire officer Abbas Hussain said.
Hussain described piles of leather stacked in the building’s narrow staircase and cramped workshop, adding that the factory was most likely illegal.
“From what we see, there was nothing proper and the factory must surely not have been a legal one but we can say for sure only after a proper investigation,” Hussain said.
Police superintendent Taj confirmed that the two building owners had been detained. The fire is yet another blight on the country’s poor record for workplace safety where deadly accidents are commonplace.
Residents described the neighbourhood with its maze of narrow streets as being dotted with illegal factories, which mostly employ underpaid migrant workers.
Either side of the charred factory were residential buildings with shops on the ground floor.
The front of the workshop had been shuttered with a metal grill similar to the neighbouring shop fronts, residents said, which had prevented the workers from escaping when the blaze began.
Nawaz Alam, a migrant worker at nearby jeans workshop, said he had little choice but to work in an illegal factory. “We are not paid well and have to live in inhuman conditions in the factories to save money,” Alam said. “I would prefer to work in a proper factory but can’t get a job.”