How mixed-use buildings in city markets are turning into firetraps

New Delhi: The acrid smell of charred wood and melted plastic still hangs heavy over Palam’s Ram Chowk Market, over 10 days after a devastating blaze killed nine people.Behind yellow police barricades, the gutted shell of a building lays bare a dangerous co-existence common across Delhi’s congested quarters: families live in rooms on the upper floors of commercial buildings, sleeping directly above unregulated shops packed with flammable stock, with their only escape route a single staircase that doubles as a storage space.TOI visited Palam, Chandni Chowk and Shaheen Bagh and witnessed conditions that, block by block, mirror the urban jumble — overloaded electrical infrastructure, no fire exits, no extinguishers and no safety inspections — that claimed the nine lives in Palam.In Chandni Chowk’s Vaidwara lane, the first thing that hits you is the electric wiring. Black cables run in thick, knotted bundles between buildings, looping around tilted utility poles and drooping at eye level across narrow lanes barely wide enough for two people to pass side by side. High-end lehengas and sarees were among inflammable articles precariously hanging next to the wires.Locals said the electric mesh installed decades ago to cater to small family households now powers rows of display lights, industrial air conditioners and refrigeration units. A typical household may use around 1-2 kilowatts, while shops operating from the same space often draw 10-15 kilowatts or more to run the heavy equipment.Despite this jump in power usage, the wiring and meters are rarely upgraded, with the same system designed for a small home forced to handle the load of a commercial setup. Residents say this “overloading” puts constant pressure on the frayed wiring, increasing chances of overheating and short circuits — a common trigger for fires in these markets.Pointing to a pole, Shravan Kumar (78) said, “Over the last five decades, I have watched this pole lean further and further, because of the sheer weight of the wires it supports.”Sanjeev Sharma, 49, another local, scrolled through his phone to show a video of a tree engulfed in flames right outside his window. The fire, he said, was ignited by a short circuit less than six months ago. Residents threw water from their balconies, dousing the flames. “Their quick thinking saved the block. If the fire had spread to a shop, the entire lane would have been gone.”TOI walked into many of the shops in the area and checked whether they had fire extinguishers. The most common response was a blank stare. Emergency exits, meaning any exit beyond the single front entrance, are also absent. In many cases, staircases connecting ground-floor commercial units to residential floors above are also the informal storage area for excess stock, boxes and waste material. When a fire breaks out, such a staircase becomes a chimney.Crucially, most such buildings are not legally required to obtain a fire no-objection certificate (NOC), as structures under the prescribed height and area limits fall outside mandatory safety inspection norms. For commercial units, only those above nine metres or with ground-plus-two floors are to be checked.This means in vast swathes of Delhi, including markets like Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Karol Bagh, and Rajouri Garden, mixed-use zoning has created a regulatory blind spot, with no checks on wiring, storage or even the presence of emergency exits, allowing hazardous setups to operate unmonitored for years.In Shaheen Bagh, the danger is compounded by rampant encroachment. What were once relatively passable roads in front of residential buildings have progressively become too narrow for fire tenders to negotiate as restaurants and eateries on the ground floors have expanded outwards — with everything from awnings, seating space, the area storing gas cylinders edging into the streets.Residents on the upper floors of these mixed-use buildings said the risk is evident. “In the 2024 fire that gutted Hotel Zaika, Zahra and Bismillah, access was choked by encroachments and parked vehicles. The restaurants reopened, but the street remained as narrow as it was,” said Shandar Ali, a local.Nineteen-year-old Alia Tabbassum said the risk spikes during monsoon, with short circuits “sparking on poles like fireworks,” and called for mandatory fire audits for small establishments.Back at the site of the blaze in Palam, residents said that fire extinguishers were distributed following the blaze. But here too, clothes were seen hanging dangerously close to exposed wires. Locals said a common point of friction between the residents and shopkeepers is the way goods are piled up and stored in staircases and balconies.“The 2019 Anaj Mandi in Sadar Bazaar fire, in which 45 people died, already exposed a major regulatory gap,” a senior fire officer said. “In cramped structures, firefighters often lack basic information on occupancy or layout. Many of these markets have grown organically without proper mapping or planned road access. As a result, spare space is often crammed with flammable goods, waste material and even LPG cylinders, while the narrow lanes make firefighting difficult,” the officer added.Delhi discoms have been proactively strengthening their network and monitoring systems to address these risks arising from electrical overloading, especially in mixed-use areas, an official of a private discom said.