Summary:
New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) About 30 people could be dead from the inferno that tore through a building in Mundka and 19 are missing, officials said on Saturday, the hope that some people could still be alive in the smouldering embers of the fire that broke out the day before ebbing by the hour.
Twelve people were injured in the fire that started on the first floor of the four-storeyed building which had a single narrow entry and exit route making escape difficult.
Earlier, the police had put the number of missing people to 29 but later revised it to 19.
According to officials, of the 27 dead, 21 are women.
Among the dead are Kailash and Amit Jyani, a father-son duo, who were motivational speakers addressing an event on the second floor of the building at the time of the incident on Saturday, police said.
They had reportedly come from abroad to attend the event, but there was no official confirmation from the police on this.
Piecing together the events of Friday, when the blaze started on the first floor of the four-storey building in outer Delhi around 4.45 pm before quickly spreading, Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg said there was only a single entry and exit point.
It also did not have a fire safety certificate or fire-fighting equipment.
"The building had a single escape route which is why there were so many casualties.
Twenty-seven people have died," Garg told reporters.
"The building also did not have a proper blueprint.
Most of the bodies were found on the second floor." Brothers Harish and Varun Goel, owners of a CCTV camera and router manufacturing and assembling company in whose office the fire is suspected to have started, have been arrested, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Sameer Sharma said.
Their father is missing.
The building"s owner Manish Lakra will soon be arrested, police officials said, adding packaging material was stored on the third floor which helped intensify the blaze.
They said the company had around 100 employees, including around 50 women, who used to work from 10 am to 7 pm.
a motivational programme was organised on Friday around 4 pm for the employees and they were assembled on the second floor.
An official, who did not wish to be named, said that had there been no such session at the time of the incident, the deaths would not have been so high.
As rescuers looked for survivors and distraught relatives gathered outside the building in the congested outer Delhi industrial locality and hospital, officials said charred human remains were found during cooling operations in the morning.