With rise in temperature, fire threat looms large over 1,100 slums in city

‘The material used for construction of Jhuggies are highly combustible and produce toxic gases. In summers even a small fire in these shanties goes out of control within 30 seconds,’ said a senior official of Delhi Fire Service. 

‘It’s practically impossible for fire department to save any single Jhuggy if it comes in the grip of fire,’ he added, explaining why not even a single Jhuggy could be saved in Masoodpur fire mishap that took place on Friday, in which about 500 shanties were burnt down into ashes leaving over 5,000 people homeless.

As per the data available with Delhi government the city has 1,100 JJ clusters (slums) in Delhi in which around 10 lakh households reside. 

However the unofficial sources put the figure much more that the official one as several JJ clusters are adding in the city every month by the people coming here from various parts of the country and also from neighbouring Bengladesh and Nepal in search of their livelihood. What could be called mechanical slums-row upon row of crowded worker houses in the shadow of factory, parks, Yamuna bed, underneath or by the side of flyovers/bridges can be seen while entering the city and new within the city. 

According to fire department officers about 600 litres of water flow through a nozzle in a minute. As a water tender carried 4,500 litres of water it is emptied within four minutes if two nozzles are used simultaneously.

‘By the time the affected JJ Clusters people can inform the fire brigade, hundreds of Jhuggies get involved because of the type of material used for construction of these huts and unsystematic layout leads to entire area gutted in fire in shortest possible time,’ the official said. 

‘To stop it upwind velocity play havoc in such stone pelting, man handling and damaging the fire service vehicles that results in total non-cooperation of the affected people with the Delhi Fire Service which ultimately causes delay in starting fire fighting operations,’ he added. Even on Friday’s incident the locals, initially did not allow the fire tenders to go inside alleging late response despite the fire tenders reached there within 10 minutes of receiving the call.