200 huts caught in fire at Delhi's Paschim Puri slum, woman injured

A day after 17 people were killed in a fire at Central Delhi's Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh, 200 shanties were caught in a fire at a slum in Paschim Puri late on Tuesday night. A woman was injured and was shifted to a nearby hospital. As many as 25 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. AK Jaiswal, the fire officer said as quoted by news agency ANI, "We got a call around 1 am that a fire had broken out in slums. We immediately sent 20-25 fire tenders to the spot. It took us 2 hours to control the fire, a woman was injured and has been shifted to a hospital. More than 200 huts were caught in the fire."

The Delhi Police has registered a case under IPC Section 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in connection with the fire that broke out in Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh on Tuesday. According to reports, the police have also added Section 308 of IPC (attempt to commit culpable homicide).

Meanwhile, Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons said the emergency exit of the Arpit Palace hotel was ‘too narrow’ and also locked. Alphons, who visited the site of the tragedy, said he was sure that there would be violation of norms. The minister said there were a lot of wooden structures inside, which may have helped the fire spread.

"When I headed to the emergency exit, I found that it had been locked yesterday (last night). Also, it was too narrow. Obviously, even if people came to the emergency exit, they could not have escaped as it was too narrow and it was locked anyway," he said.