Building comes crashing down, leaves two dead in Delhi

NEW DELHI: “I’ll be home in the next 10 minutes,” Rehaan assured his friends and relatives as he wrapped up his work in a clothing factory in D Block of northeast Delhi’s Kabir Nagar very early on Thursday. His family was waiting for him for the sehri, the first meal of the day during Ramzan. Moments after this phone conversation, the morning calm around Rehaan was shattered by a thunderous noise and desperate screams.The two-storey factory building had collapsed. The 22-year-old Rehaan survived the catastrophe but Arshad, 30, and Tauhid, 20, weren’t as lucky.
Residents of the area recounted to TOI how they dug into the debris with their hands to rescue the trapped men, something that took almost three hours. Police said the building was a garment factory, with jeans cutting done on the ground floor. The first floor was vacant at the time of the incident.
“We frantically dug into the almost four feet of rubble,” said Raja, 34, a local resident. “All the while, there was the threat of the adjacent building, which is also in a dilapidated condition, falling. But the cries for help coming from beneath the debris compelled us to use whatever implements we could lay our hands on.”
Fareed Ahmad, the father of Rehaan, told TOI, “My son has several stitches on the back of his head and back but is stable at present. Even in the condition he is in, Rehaan keeps inquiring about his friends. But we don't have the heart to tell him the truth.”
According to Joy Tirkey, DCP (North-East), the cops received a call at 2.16am about the collapse of the ageing structure and workers trapped in the rubble. “We extracted three men and rushed them to the hospital. Two of them were declared dead at the hospital while the third is undergoing treatment,” Tirkey said.
Along with the local police, four fire tenders and a National Disaster Relief Force team also reached the spot. Police suspect the collapse was triggered by accumulated debris from the building which had been undergoing demolition for the past 15 days. Police have booked the building owner, identified as Shahid, and efforts are on to track him down. Legal action will be taken in the matter, police said.
The locals began their rescue act before the cops or firemen arrived with special equipment. Mohammad Zeeshan, eyes visibly tired after the horrendous night, recalled retrieving the body of his childhood friend Arshad from the debris, while the kin of Tauhid admitted they didn’t have the heart to break the news to his family. The news will break his parents down for certain, they agreed.
Zeeshan said, “The boys grew up on these lanes. They were working late and were just finishing their work before sehri when the tragedy struck. They had begun working in the factory to support their families.”
Municipal officials said the building was 40 years old and the owner had been demolishing it in parts. It was due to shaking caused by the demolition that the building collapsed, claimed the officials. “There was no new construction going on in this building. The maintenance department of Delhi Municipal Corporation is clearing the rubble,” said one official.
Some residents were bemused. “Why were the factory employees being made to work in a structure that was going through a demolition for a fortnight?” asked one. Mumtaz Ali, another resident, claimed, “Structures running up to six storeys are being erected on very small plots. Despite our complaints and questions, no action has ever been taken.”