On the night of 18th May, a fire was reported from the Greater Kailash part 2 market area. Initially reported from a restaurant, it was just confined to the terrace of the building that houses the restaurant. Fortunately, not only was the restaurant full at that time but also the fire was massive and could easily have had tragic consequences.
An alert resident of the colony immediately informed the concerned authorities, including the fire department, the police and the RWA. The staff was quick to evacuate the building to prevent any loss of life, for which they must be commended. The police personnel including the SHO were also very proactive to quickly cordon off the area, which was no easy task considering it was Saturday night, the time when the market tends to be most congested. Mr Sanjay Rana of the RWA along with some volunteers helped in the management of traffic so that the fire brigades could have a smooth passage.
Kudos to all people including the Market Association members who worked collectively to avert what could have been a disaster of epic proportions, given that it was Saturday night when maximum people throng the multiple eateries in the market. Ultimately five fire brigades were needed to contain the fire, with fortunately no injuries at all. It also showed alert residents, presence of mind and collective effort can go a long way to control such situations.
This also begs a moot question as to the cause of the fire and the preventive measures taken to avert such a situation. The cause of the fire was suspected to be due to sparking in the generator set kept on the terrace. This spark was ostensibly caused by the sudden tripping of the electric supply. The presence of combustible material acted as a catalyst, and the high temperatures at this time of year provided the perfect environment for the fire to spread. The questions that need to be answered are what was the combustible material lying on the terrace that caused the fire, was poor maintenance the cause of sparking, and what measures were there in the building to control the blaze and evacuate people till the fire brigades arrived.
We as citizens tend to wake up only when tragedy strikes, and promptly go to sleep the moment the situation gets under control. While the current situation was handled well, it could have easily spiraled out of control. Unfortunately, we belong to that group of people for whom it is said “people who forget history are condemned to repeat it”. One only hopes that at least some of us have taken lessons from this incident so that these things are not repeated.
