Dhanbad Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

On 8 September 2026, land sank in Sijua and damaged homes; police said a child died during treatment and at least four people were hurt, and one officer counted seven damaged houses (we cover it in a case study). A coal company area official said affected families would be relocated, while a local MLA blamed illegal mining, and no technical finding has been published.

Under the earlier master plan, active surface fire sites in the Jharia coalfield fell from 77 to 27, but only 39 of 595 identified subsidence sites had been stabilised. In June 2025 the Union Cabinet cleared a revised plan of about Rs 5,940 crore to put out fires, treat unsafe ground and move thousands of families, starting with the most vulnerable zones.

On 13 September 2026, the roof of an unauthorised tunnel at Keshalpur Kumharpatti in Katras fell in; reports agreed that at least two people died, a union leader said three, and several were feared trapped. In July 2025, a collapse near Baghmara was reported to have killed five, with the toll disputed and local officials saying no such incident had been reported to them.

On 31 January 2023, a fire that began on the second floor of the 13-storey Ashirwad Tower in Joda Phatak killed at least 14 people, including ten women and three children, in a block of about 400 residents; five fire tenders were sent and the cause was not settled in the reports we read. Three days earlier, on 28 January, smoke from a fire in the corridor joining a clinic and the family home in Hazra suffocated five or six people, including two doctors.