Fire incident: MCD orders survey of PGs in all wards of Civil Lines Zone

Civic authorities have ordered a survey of paying guest facilities located in all wards of the Civil Lines Zone here in the wake of a fire incident at a PG facility in an apartment in Northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, officials said on Thursday.

Thirty-five people, one of them a four-year-old girl, were rescued by firemen from a blaze that engulfed the apartment on Wednesday evening.

The fire started from an electric metre in the stilt area where old furniture and a rickshaw were parked, according to a report received from the site, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said in a statement.

Directions have been issued to the zonal building department to open their office on Thursday, and to "conduct a survey of PGs in all wards of the Civil Lines Zone" of the MCD, it said.

According to local inquiry conducted by the MCD, "the building was being used as a PG for girls accommodating 10-12 girls".

At the time of the incident, seven-eight girls were present in the building and most of them came out through an adjacent building, the statement said.

The Delhi Police has booked the owner of the paying guest facility.

While the fire department sent 20 fire tenders to the site, only eight could reach the spot because of traffic congestion and narrow lanes.