Massive blaze destroys slum cluster in Gurugram’s Sector 102
Firefighters said that more than 15 small cooking cylinders available illegally in the market, were being used by the dwellers and exploded fuelling the fire
Gurugram: A massive fire destroyed a major portion of a slum cluster and several scrapyards as it spread swiftly over several acres of land in Sector 102 of the city, along the Dwarka Expressway on Wednesday, fire department officials said.
They said that the fire broke out from a scrapyard located there at about 3.15am after which it quickly spread to other parts and engulfed more than 70-80 huts reducing them to ashes.
Firefighters said that more than 15 small cooking cylinders available illegally in the market, were being used by the dwellers and exploded fuelling the fire.
Fire officials said that at least five people sustained minor injuries from the flames while trying to save their belongings amid the chaos.
Fire officer at the Bhim Nagar fire station, Narender Kumar Yadav, said that it was a massive fire and firefighting continued till 8.30am, after which the teams returned.
“We first pressed three fire tenders into action from the Bhim Nagar station. However, we realised that more tenders were required looking at the intensity of the fire following which we requisitioned two each from Sector 29 and Sector 37 fire stations and one each from IMT Manesar and Pataudi fire stations,” he said.
Yadav said that the fire actually broke out in the scrapyard in the slums between 3am and 3.20am when all the occupants were asleep. He added that the fire station was alerted by 3.50am. “The fire spread quickly as the area was filled with extremely inflammable and combustible substances,” he said.
Dinesh Kumar, a firefighter at the spot, said multiple cooking cylinders kept inside the huts exploded due to the fire as people fled when the fire began to spread.
“These explosions further fuelled the fire. We managed to pull out at least four domestic cooking cylinders from the burning houses to avoid a larger crisis as another explosion could have injured the dwellers, who were rushing about amid the flames in an attempt to pull out whatever belongings they could,” he said, adding most of the cash stored inside metal trunks by the dwellers was also reduced to ashes.
Mohammad Islam, originally from West Bengal, said he lost all his belongings in the fire. “It was too late by the time we got up. The fire had spread everywhere. I had saved at least ₹35,000 after working for the last several months which was burnt. Other families also met the same fate,” he added.
