One firefighter was killed and many more injured when a fire broke out at battery manufacturing plant in New Delhi on Thursday, 2 January.
The battery factory collapsed in Peera Garhi, northwest Delhi, following an explosion due to a fire that took 35 fire engines more than 10 hours to extinguish, according to reports from news outlets in the city.
Although the name of the company had not been confirmed, news outlets in the city have published images showing lead-acid and lithium-ion battery maker Okaya Power’s building. The company’s headquarters are in Peera Ghari.
There were no workers inside the building when the fire broke out around 4 am, which led to heavy smoke engulfing the rear portion of the building. The building contained inflammable material like acid and plastic used for making batteries, police reported.
Eyewitnesses reported ‘many explosions’ coming from the building until it finally collapsed around 9 am.
A fire official said three people were rescued from the debris of the building in Peera Garhi area in western New Delhi. Thirty-five fire engines were at the site, and the rescue operation was continuing for some people feared trapped there.
Chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, has tweeted that one of the 19 injured firefighters had died.
The cause of the fire was being investigated, police said.
The Star Tribune media source quoted Sarvan Maurya, who worked as a supervisor in the factory, as saying: “The basement in this building was very large as the entire stock of batteries used to be stored there.”
