Delhi fire: A capital tragedy, national shame

The death of at least 21 people in a fire in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar is part of an ongoing national tragedy. The fire in Palam, Delhi that killed nine people in March; the conflagration in a Cuttack medical college and hospital that claimed 12 lives in the same month; the fire that broke out in a Kolkata hotel in April, killing 14: These incidents, all from the last six months alone, frame a pattern of norms breached and rules circumvented, of overcrowded structures with narrow exits and exposed wires or ageing electrical systems, of lack of basic equipment and wilful ignorance of protocols. The pattern reveals the shockingly low priority accorded to safety in urban governance in a country where more and more people now live in cities.

The causes of the fire in Malviya Nagar will be confirmed after an investigation. But it is not hard to guess the factors that might have turned the site into a tinderbox. The area is a busy spot of commerce and leisure, brimming with eateries, paying-guest accommodations and shops. Given its proximity to three major hospitals, it sees a large number of out-of-town patients and medical tourists from other parts of the world occupying the tiny, windowless rooms available on rent. Buildings sit cheek-by-jowl — the fire began in the basement kitchen of one bed-and-breakfast and spread to the next — and the lanes are too congested for timely help and rescue. As noted in the report “Fires in India: Learning Lessons for Urban Safety” (2020) by the National Institute of Disaster Management, it is this complex web of vulnerabilities that leads to the vast majority of urban fires.

According to a recent working paper by the PM-EAC, India’s “hidden urbanisation” phenomenon has meant that far more Indians live in urban clusters than most estimates suggest; going by the satellite data from the Global Human Settlements Layer, India was already 63 per cent urban in 2015. The National Building Code does have extensive directions to prevent fire mishaps, and most states, too, have fire safety guidelines. What is needed is strengthening supervision, enforcing regulations and empowering municipalities — the tier of governance responsible for fire-safety operations. Not long ago, in the wake of the collapse of a building in the nearby area of Saidulajab, which led to the death of six people, municipal officers promised an audit of unsafe buildings. Tragedies like these may be a wake-up call, but they must be followed by sustained attention, apart from demands for accountability.