Fire at Narela plastic factory kills 40-year-old

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old man was charred and another was grievously injured in a massive fire that broke out at a plastic factory in outer Delhi’s Narela industrial area on Saturday morning. Police said that the fire began due to a cylinder blast at the factory.
There were many people trapped inside the building when the fire broke out, but were later evacuated safely, the factory officials said.
“We received a call about the accident at G block of the industrial area around 12.30am after which, seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot,” a fire official said.
“Initially we sent seven fire tenders, but as the situation worsened, 23 more were rushed to the spot and the flames were brought under control in three hours,” a senior Delhi Fire Services officer said.
After nearly 10 minutes of the operation, officers found a man lying unconscious at the entrance of one of the rooms. Another man, a guard at the factory, was found after nearly half an hour. Fire officers said that all the other workers were rescued except these two men.
Both of them were rushed to a hospital, where one of them, identified as Nandu Dubey, was declared dead on arrival. The other one has been admitted for further treatment.
Police said that Dubey has been at the factory since the past 11 years and had recently joined work after a two-week vacation. He was away to attend a family function in Uttar Pradesh. The rescued workers told police that when Dubey saw the flames, he went inside to evacuate everyone, but got trapped himself.
A case of negligence has been registered against the owner of the factory.