Residents blame poor upkeep, lack of fire preparedness for blaze at MP housing complex in Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) Residents of a Delhi apartment complex that saw a massive fire Saturday afternoon said despite being a high-security building complex where several MPs and their staff lived, it lacked basic fire preparedness and was poorly maintained.

They claimed that a few children were injured and taken to a hospital, and several families suffered heavy losses due to the fire at Brahmaputra Apartments in Baba Kharak Singh Marg area.

The fire began on the ground floor, which was a parking space but filled with furniture, polishing materials and other inflammable items, residents said.

Officials said the cause of the blaze is under investigation, but residents said it started after the stacks of furniture caught fire when firecrackers were burst in the stilt area, which then spread rapidly.

"It almost looked like a sofa godown. We ran for water, but nothing worked. We went to the fire extinguishers and the pipes, but there was no water supply.

"By the time the fire trucks came, it was already too late. They came close to an hour late," Gangaram Valmiki, who works for various MPs and was among the first to witness the incident, told PTI.

The Delhi Fire Services (DFS), however, denied the allegations of delay, saying that teams reached the site promptly after receiving the call.

According to officials, the DFS received a call regarding the fire at 1.22 pm and began operations by 1.40 pm. Fourteen fire tenders were rushed to the site, and the blaze was brought under control by 2.10 pm, it said.

Kamal Gahtori, personal assistant to Uttarakhand MP Naresh Bansal, told PTI that the first floor, where he resides, was the worst affected.

He said that when the fire broke out, he was attending a programme while his family was out of town for Diwali. His cook had gone out for work, leaving behind the cook's wife, two small children and the cook's elderly mother.

"The cook's wife had gone downstairs to get some milk and when she came back, she saw the fire. She immediately rushed back into the house to save her family. Her elderly mother-in-law couldn't even move, but somehow she managed to save them," Gahtori added.

He said everything inside had been destroyed. "All our belongings, documents, jewellery, clothes, even sarees inside the cupboards have been burnt together. The sarees have merged into each other. Everything is gone now," he said.

Gahtori said that each floor has eight staff quarters. "The first floor has been completely gutted and is the worst affected. I am not sure about the other floors," he said.

Several residents raised questions about maintenance and safety in government residential buildings. The incident has left many staff families without homes, they said.

Kamal Valmiki said close to 20 families have suffered big losses on the eve of Dhanteras. "It is Dhanteras and people were preparing for the festival, but now many families have lost everything," he said, adding that the incident exposed serious lapses in the upkeep of the housing complex.

There was no immediate reaction from the Central Public Works Department, which maintains the building.

"This is supposed to be a high-security and well-maintained complex. If basic safety checks were done, this could have been avoided," Valmiki alleged.

The Brahmaputra Apartments complex, inaugurated in 2020, houses Rajya Sabha MPs and their families. PTI SGV BUN SKY SKY