NEW DELHI: Mitthu, a ragpicker, wishes he never left for work on Sunday, when a fire in a slum in Rohini where he lives, killed his little son.
Alam, two and half years old, was playing games on the phone when a fire broke out in the slum in Sector 17.
“Everything happened so quickly that people ran outside as soon as they could. No one knew that he was there. I was out for work. If I was there I could have saved him,” Mitthu said. “His mother will die crying,” said an equally inconsolable father.
Mitthu stated that in less than a month they were scheduled to go to his native village in Jharkhand.
“His mother and I lovingly named him Bittu. Since yesterday, his mother has not stopped crying. I am more worried about her at this time. She won’t survive if she doesn’t stop crying,” he said about his wife, a househelp.
Mitthu, who has been living in the area for more than two decades, has four more children, all older than Alam.
“We had savings of around Rs 1.5 lakh and some jewellery. I had booked the tickets for my entire family to go to Jharkhand but the fire snatched away everything. My child, a roof on our head, and whatever little we could save,” he said.
Josan, 52, a maternal uncle of the child, said about the family, “They have not even a tent to call a roof over their head. The night has passed but she has not stopped crying. We are really worried about her health.”
Shamim, father of three-year-old Sayda, who also perished in the fire, said she has no hopes left.
“I went to rescue my children. I found my son but couldn’t find my girl. What can the government do? Can it return my child? No, they can’t, so what else can I ask from them,” he said.
The families still await for the bodies of the deceased, which were taken for post-mortem.
Josan said, “We have been waiting for so many hours in the hospital so that we can perform their last rites. However, it has yet not been handed over.”
A Delhi Fire Services official said they received a distress call at 11.55 am about a fire.
“We immediately dispatched 17 fire engines. Upon observing the intensity of the fire, we upgraded it to a medium category fire by 12.40 pm and called for more vehicles and manpower,” he said. In all, 26 fire tenders were deployed.
According to DFS, the fire started from one of the huts and swiftly engulfed the entire slum. The official said firefighters had a hard time reaching the spot because of the buildings surrounding the hutments.
“There is an apartment complex with boundary walls in front of the affected area that made access extremely difficult. Fire engines had to be lined up one behind the other, and the operation got delayed,” he said.
Locals said over 1,000 poor families, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, lived in the slum. Geeta Devi, who lost her home in the fire, urged the government for fair compensation, stating, “We earn Rs 300 to 500 daily. Where will we go?”