83 killed, over 390 injured in fire in first six months of 2024: Official data

PTI, Jun 25, 2024, 8:49 PM IST

Representative image (source: iStock)

New Delhi: Fire has taken 83 lives and injured over 390 people so far this year in the national capital, according to an official data.

According to the data by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), 16 people were killed in fire in January, another 16 in February, 12 in March, four in April, seven in May and 24 till June 24.

On Tuesday (June 25), four members of a family were suffocated to death in Chhawala area of Delhi’s Dwarka.

Fire incidents led to 51 injuries in January, 42 in February, 62 in March, 78 in April, 84 in May and 77 till June 24.

From January 1 to June 24, the DFS received 12,687 fire-related calls.

According to the data, 39 people had lost their lives during the same period in 2023.

“The number of fire calls increased to 48 per cent this year. According to the data, a total 7,774 calls related to the fire were received from January 1 to June 24 last year, but this year the number has gone up by more than 48 per cent with 12,687 fire related calls during the same period,” an official of the Delhi Fire Services said.

“Last year 39 people had lost their lives, this year total 83 people have so far lost their lives if we include four deaths in Delhi’s Dwarka,” the official added.

On Tuesday, four of a family members were killed after a fire broke out in a house in Dwarka.

Last month, seven newborn died after a massive fire broke out at a private children’s hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar.

The blaze broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital and soon spread to two other adjacent buildings.

On the same day, three people died in a fire in a four-storey residential building in Krishna Nagar area of east Delhi.

On February 15, 11 people died in an explosion and subsequent blaze in a paint factory at Dayalpur market in outer Delhi’s Alipur. Four people were injured in the incident.

The charred bodies of the 11 victims, one of them a woman, were recovered from the factory, which doubled as a chemical godown.

The fire, which was preceded by a blast, had spread to the nearby buildings, including a drug rehabilitation centre and eight shops.

In another incident in February, an 83-year-old woman died and her granddaughter sustained injuries after they jumped off the fourth floor of a residential building in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka when a fire broke out in their apartment.