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At least 10 people were injured, one of them critically, after the explosion of a cooking gas cylinder on Tuesday collapsed a two-storey building in Ishu Vihar, Mukundpur, northwest Delhi. It took locals and officials around two hours to search for and rescue the victims who were trapped under the debris.
A preliminary probe suggested that the blast allegedly took place during the illegal refilling of smaller gas cylinders, officials from the fire and police departments said, with a total of 38 empty gas cylinders recovered from the incident site and 46 more — 25 domestic and 21 commercial — recovered from a room in a nearby building.
“However, our investigations are still to ascertain the exact reason behind the cylinder blast,” said deputy commissioner of police (outer-north) Hareshwar Swami.
Police and local residents said the building was being used for running multiple illegal commercial activities, including transferring cooking gas into small cylinders from bigger ones, coating of utensils, production and packaging of spices, and manufacturing of mobile chargers.
Two separate cases were registered at Bhalswa Dairy police station in connection with the incident and by evening two people had been apprehended. One of them, identified as Harkesh Singh alias Bablu, is the brother of the property owner. Bablu was found to have stored the gas cylinders. The other apprehended man, Sudhir Rai, ran a utensil coating business in the building, said Swami.
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officials said they first received information about the collapse of a building built over nearly 250 square yards in Gali Number-1, Ishu Vihar, at 9:37am.
The impact of the blast was such that a wall in the rear building also collapsed while an iron gate and metal shutter of a shop on the back side were damaged. One part of the gate was thrown nearly seven-eight feet away, towards the main road, police and local residents said.
Initially, at least six injured people were pulled out from under the debris by locals who rushed to spot after the blast.
Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot to rescue people. Police personnel, teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and sniffer dogs also joined the search.
All ten injured, including six with burns, were workers at the building. Of them, a 35-year-old woman, identified as Deepa is in critical condition with nearly 70% burns, said officials, adding she has been admitted to the burns ward at Safdarjung Hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.
The rest were identified as Aman (18), Akhilesh alias Lambu (38), Love Kumar (18), Arif Khan (47), Chandan (28), Kalpana (30), Shyam (30), Vivek (40), and Sofia Khatoom (25).
Speaking to HT, Love Kumar who is currently at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital said he said he had barely begun work when the building collapsed and has no memory of what happened afterwards.
“I left home around 8am and went to the labour chowk looking for work. A contractor approached me and offered ₹400 for a small construction job at a house, then brought me to the area. I had never been there before and had barely started working,” he said.
Gareeb Nath (50), a school bus driver, who lives in the neighbourhood was witness to the incident. “The area was engulfed in thick black dust, and it soon became clear that people were trapped inside. We initially pulled out six people — five men and one woman. Those who could move with support were helped out and rushed to the hospital on motorcycles and e-rickshaws. The woman Deepa, however, had suffered severe burn injuries and her clothes had been burnt off. We carried her to the hospital in a private vehicle.”
Another resident Sooraj Singh (32) said the building was commonly referred to as a factory and that it was known for maintaining a steady supply of cylinders, even when there were shortages witnessed everywhere else.
“They always maintained a steady supply of cylinders. Even if someone approached them at midnight, they would make sure the cylinders were delivered,” said Singh.
The DCP said one case was registered under sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 125A and B (act causing hurt and grievous hurt, endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 3/7 of the Essential Commodity Act. The other case was registered under section 287 of the BNS and 3/7 of the Essential Commodity Act.
Karn Pratap Singh has been writing on crime, policing, and issues of safety in Delhi for almost a decade. He covers high-intensity spot news, including terror strikes, serial blasts and security threats in the national capital.
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