New Delhi:
A massive fire broke out in a plastic scrap market in north-west Delhi early Sunday morning engulfing an over one-km long area, with fire fighters suspecting it was "deliberately" ignited by someone.
No one was injured in the blaze which broke out at around 2.15 am in the scrap market on Phirni Road in Mundka and over 30 fire tenders were rushed to tackle it.
It took almost 15 hours to completely extinguish the fire even though it was brought under control within seven hours of it breaking out, they said, adding, fire fighters had to work till late in the evening and using a "cooling process" as smoke was billowing out from the scrap market.
"The incident occurred in an open area where a lot scrap is stored and an estimated 50 cylinders burst due to the fire, further augmenting it," a fire official said.
The fire spread out to an area 1.5 km long and two acres wide, but fortunately there was no residential area in the vicinity, the official said.
"The fire, we believe, was ignited deliberately by some person. Fortunately, there has been no casualty," Delhi Fire Service Director R C Sharma told PTI.
Police is yet to register any case.
Sharma said eye-witnesses claimed they saw some people pour kerosene and petrol and set the scrap afire before fleeing from the spot on motorcycles. "We are not sure about their identity. It is a matter of investigations," he said.
He said the fire broke out in four places in an area spread across two acres. "While three areas were connected, the fourth one was not. If it was in the afternoon, we could have attributed it to wind. But the atmosphere was calm in the morning. This raises suspicion," Sharma said.
Asked why it took so much time to control the fire, he said the material which caught fire was PVC (plastic) and water does not reach its inner layers very fast.
"Even if we can douse the fire on the surface, there will be smoldering inside resulting in smoke. It takes time. The process of cooling takes seven to eight hours," he said.
The scrap market fire comes a day after a major blaze broke out at a container depot in south Delhi's Tuglaqabad, one of the biggest such facilities in Asia, which destroyed 24 of the 25 warehouses that store goods worth crores of rupees meant for exports.
Apart from this, the city witnessed a number of fire- related incidents in recent days. Around 600 hutments were gutted and two persons injured on April 8 when a major power transmission line fell down on an east Delhi slum, triggering a massive fire.
On April 2, four major fire incidents were reported from the city, including one at former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's residence and another at the Income Tax office.
No one was injured in the blaze which broke out at around 2.15 am in the scrap market on Phirni Road in Mundka and over 30 fire tenders were rushed to tackle it.
It took almost 15 hours to completely extinguish the fire even though it was brought under control within seven hours of it breaking out, they said, adding, fire fighters had to work till late in the evening and using a "cooling process" as smoke was billowing out from the scrap market.
"The incident occurred in an open area where a lot scrap is stored and an estimated 50 cylinders burst due to the fire, further augmenting it," a fire official said.
The fire spread out to an area 1.5 km long and two acres wide, but fortunately there was no residential area in the vicinity, the official said.
"The fire, we believe, was ignited deliberately by some person. Fortunately, there has been no casualty," Delhi Fire Service Director R C Sharma told PTI.
Police is yet to register any case.
Sharma said eye-witnesses claimed they saw some people pour kerosene and petrol and set the scrap afire before fleeing from the spot on motorcycles. "We are not sure about their identity. It is a matter of investigations," he said.
He said the fire broke out in four places in an area spread across two acres. "While three areas were connected, the fourth one was not. If it was in the afternoon, we could have attributed it to wind. But the atmosphere was calm in the morning. This raises suspicion," Sharma said.
Asked why it took so much time to control the fire, he said the material which caught fire was PVC (plastic) and water does not reach its inner layers very fast.
"Even if we can douse the fire on the surface, there will be smoldering inside resulting in smoke. It takes time. The process of cooling takes seven to eight hours," he said.
The scrap market fire comes a day after a major blaze broke out at a container depot in south Delhi's Tuglaqabad, one of the biggest such facilities in Asia, which destroyed 24 of the 25 warehouses that store goods worth crores of rupees meant for exports.
Apart from this, the city witnessed a number of fire- related incidents in recent days. Around 600 hutments were gutted and two persons injured on April 8 when a major power transmission line fell down on an east Delhi slum, triggering a massive fire.
On April 2, four major fire incidents were reported from the city, including one at former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's residence and another at the Income Tax office.
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