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Death toll in Delhi fire touches 32

The death toll in yesterday's devastating fire at the densely-populated Lal Kuan area of Old Delhi rose to 32 today with 18 burn victims succumbing to their injuries at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital overnight.

The toll is expected to rise further as the condition of more than 50 percent of the 40 patients undergoing treatment at the hospital is stated to be 'very critical'.

Doctors at the hospital said the chances of survival of these 'very critical' patients were dim as they had received burns between 70 to 100 per cent.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the hospital this morning and said steps would be taken to prevent the occurrence of such tragedies in future.

Later, talking to reporters, he said it was sad that such an incident had taken place. He added that the summer heat might have helped the inferno assume such proportions.

Thirteen people died on the spot yesterday after being caught in the fire ball which erupted from a transport godown on Hamdard Road in the Lal Kuan area. One body was recovered by the police this morning.

The dead are yet to be identified. The exact cause of the fire, which broke out from the New Aligarh transport godown at 0355 hours, has not been ascertained.

But according to witnesses and local residents, the fire was caused by a short-circuit in a transformer kept in the transport godown where highly inflammable and explosive chemicals were stored. An explosion preceded the inferno.

It is suspected that the drums containing the chemicals blew up because of the fire, sending a huge fire ball onto the street which instantly killed most of the people walking past the entrance of the godown at that time.

The toll would have been higher but for the efforts of the local residents who rescued a number of women and children trapped at the adjacent Geeta Nursing Home.

The inability of the Jai Prakash Narain Hospital to handle a tragedy of such proportions also prevented more lives from being saved. Patients and their relatives complained of lack of medicines and bandages.

The relative of a patient said at least patients with more than 70 per cent burns should be kept in the intensive care unit, but the hospital does not even have a proper ward to treat burn victims.

UNI

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