Massive fire guts 140 seized vehicles in police malkhana in east Delhi

New Delhi: A major fire broke out in the malkhana parking of New Ashok Nagar police station in east Delhi on Tuesday afternoon, gutting more than 140 seized vehicles and triggering multiple explosions during the firefighting operation. No injuries or casualties were reported.

Last year in April, a massive fire at Delhi Police’s Wazirabad malkhana gutted over 300 seized vehicles. It had witnessed multiple similar fires through the year.

According to police, the fire was first noticed around 1pm in the lawn area where seized vehicles were parked. Police station staff immediately tried to extinguish it while the fire department was also informed.

Ten fire tenders and around 50 firefighters battled the blaze for nearly one and a half hours before it was extinguished around 2.20pm.

Senior fire officials described the operation as “extremely challenging” due to strong winds, which increased the risk of the fire spreading to nearby structures.

Assistant divisional officer Rajesh Kumar Shukla said the biggest challenge was to stop the flames from reaching the residential police quarters and a school adjacent to the police station. “The flames were already reaching the water tanks kept on the terrace of the police station,” the senior fire official said..

Firefighters reported hearing multiple explosions as several vehicles caught fire.

An officer said over 140 vehicles were damaged, including 58 cars, three tempos, one oil tanker, four autos, five e-rickshaws, 50 motorcycles and around 20 cycle-rickshaws. Most of the vehicles were parked inside the 500-square-yard malkhana.

“As per preliminary inquiry, the fire appears to have originated from the case property vehicles parked in the parking area,” a police officer said.