Delhi Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

Many offices and workshops run from buildings with a single narrow staircase, so smoke can trap everyone on the upper floors. In the 2022 Mundka fire, 27 people died in a building with one entry and exit and no fire NOC, and at Uphaar Cinema in 1997, 59 people died of suffocation.

Water from a flooded road can fill a basement in minutes, and the only staircase becomes the way the water comes in. On 27 July 2024, three civil services aspirants died when the basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar flooded after heavy rain.

Low-lying colonies and the floodplain go under water when the Yamuna rises after heavy rain upstream. On 13 July 2023 the river touched 208.66 metres, the highest on record in Delhi, and more than 25,000 people had to be evacuated.

Narrow lanes, hanging wires and stock packed to the ceiling make old markets quick to burn and hard for fire tenders to reach. In November 2022, a fire in the Bhagirath Palace electrical market in Chandni Chowk gutted more than 100 shops; we have also covered the Seelampur market fire.

In many small units, labourers sleep in the same building where goods and machines are kept, so a night fire catches them asleep. On 8 December 2019, 43 people died in the Anaj Mandi factory fire on Rani Jhansi Road; our Swaroop Nagar factory and Dallupura warehouse case studies cover more recent fires.

Stored oxygen cylinders can explode in a fire and carry it to the buildings next door. In May 2024, seven newborns died in the Vivek Vihar baby care hospital fire, where cylinders exploded, and our Okhla case study covers a 2026 oxygen-cylinder blast.