Two men were charred to death after a massive blaze ripped through a night shelter in Coolie Camp, Vasant Vihar, in the early hours of Monday, police said, adding that seven people were inside the structure when the fire broke out, but five managed to escape. A case has been registered and an investigation is under way.
Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Amit Goel identified the deceased as Arjun, 19, who worked as a hotel sweeper, and Vikas, 42, whose background is still being verified. Police received a PCR call at 3.15am about a major fire at the shelter home, which is operated by the NGO Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM). A team rushed to the spot, where firefighters were already attempting to contain the blaze.
A fire official said four tenders were deployed following the distress call. The flames were brought under control by 4am, but the cooling operation continued until 7.30am.
“Preliminary probe revealed that seven people were staying in the shelter home. Five were rescued safely, while two died. The charred bodies were recovered around 4.30am,” an investigator said.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, a local, said the neighbourhood woke up to shouts and chaos around 2:30am. “When we stepped out, the entire shelter was engulfed in flames. We alerted more neighbours, and everyone tried to help douse the fire. I called the fire department and the police, and they arrived within minutes,” he said. “Five or six people managed to run out, but two couldn’t. They may have suffocated before they even woke up.”
Singh said Arjun and his father, a sweeper at a nearby public toilet, had been long-time residents of the shelter. “Arjun’s mother died when he was four months old. His father raised him alone and never remarried. He is shattered,” Singh said. “It’s tragic – Arjun usually slept with his father at the toilet complex but chose to sleep in the shelter that night.”
Another neighbour, who asked not to be identified, alleged that at least one of the victims could not escape because a slum cluster had been built right in front of the shelter’s exit. “Five people escaped through the entry gate, but one got trapped because the exit gate was blocked by a slum. The caretaker’s motorcycle, parked near the exit, also caught fire,” the resident claimed.
Police have registered a case under sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire) and 106 (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Vasant Vihar police station. Officers said the cause of the blaze is still being examined, and statements from survivors and local residents are being recorded.
Sunil Kumar Aledia, executive director of the Centre for Holistic Development, a Delhi-based non-profit that works to support homeless individuals, said the tragedy reflects longstanding lapses in fire safety at night shelters across the city. These include an immediate fire safety audit of all Delhi shelters, the provision of firefighting equipment and caretaker training, and the conversion of all temporary shelters into permanent structures as per government guidelines.“After a man died in a fire at the Kashmere Gate night shelter in 2018, the fire department was supposed to conduct an audit. But they didn’t,” he said. “Sometimes extinguishers exist, but caretakers are not trained to use them. There is an urgent need for a strict fire safety audit of all shelter homes.”
In 2011, a nine-year-old girl died in a tent fire near Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, and in 2018, a young man was killed in a shelter blaze in Kashmere Gate. .
