Delhi's only Rohingya camp gutted in major fire

As many as 46 shacks were gutted in a major fire at the only Rohingya camp in the national capital in the wee hours of Sunday.

No casualty was reported. One of the residents sustained burn injuries, a report in DNA said. The lives of over 200 residents were affected by the fire in the camp located in South-East Delhi's Kalindi Kunj area.

The fire broke out around 3 am and gutted 46 shacks within half an hour. The residents tried to douse the fire but it spread fast, the DNA report said.

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"The fire department received a call at 3:38 am regarding the fire at JJ colony in Madanpur Khadar area. The fire was doused by around 6:50 am. Eleven fire tenders were rushed to the spot," a fire official told DNA.

Most of the houses were built of plywoods, card-boards and plastic, which are highly combustible and hence the fire spread wild. School uniforms of children were also burnt to ashes.

"We were told to vacate our houses by the police patrolling team, and within seconds of leaving the house the only shelter on our head was engulfed in the flames," said Mohammad Atif, a resident at the camp.

The Rohingya refugees have been shifted to a nearby ground.

"Everything we had was gutted in the fire. We're being provided food and clothes by locals, a lot of help was provided by police," the Rohingya refugees told ANI.

The fire was prima facie caused by a short circuit. Locals, who lost all their documents and identity cards, said that the fire was not an accident but an attempt to damage the lives of the Rohingya refugees.

A police officer said that the main cause of the short circuit was residents illegally pulling out electricity from electric cables, the only source of electricity in the area. The police team also alleged that the residents had begun to use coolers which put a strain on the light-duty wires and resulted in a short circuit.

"The only source of electricity for the residents were the electric cables in the area. The residents were illegally pulling out electricity from the wires. The wires being used were not of fine quality and weak. They were unable to pull the load of the amount of electricity they were consuming and hence one of these snapped," a police officer told DNA.

"It was the first time on Saturday that the residents had started using coolers in their houses, but the wires used to carry the current could not withstand the heavy stand and could have possibly led to the fire," said the officer.

Locals said they had expressed their concerns of the possibility of a fire to the Delhi-based NGO Zakat Foundation which had allocated the camp to the Rohingya refugees. They said their concerns remained unaddressed.