Fire engulfs Rohingya refugee camps, 1 injured

A massive fire broke out at the Rohingya refugee camps in Southeast Delhi's Kalindi Kunj area in the wee hours of Sunday, leaving one person injured. A senior fire department official said that around 50 shanties housing Rohingya muslims were burnt to ashes.

Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer of the Delhi Fire Service said, "We received a call at around 3:40am from Kanchan Kunj in Kalindi Kunj after which 11  fire tenders were pressed into service. They took three hours to douse the flames."

 According to police, the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, however, preliminary investigations point to an office building located next to the JJ slum camp where the fire could have started, which soon spread all over the camp.

 "No one was injured, except a resident of the camp who received minor burn injuries on his hand. Three cylinders also exploded during the rescue operation by police and fire department officials," said a police officer.

Mohammad Shakir, one of the residents of the camp said that about 230 people from the Rohingya community were staying in the camp. "We have also lost all our articles including refugee cards and money as the fire spread very quickly. Many people were sleeping when the fire broke out, however all were rescued on time," said Shakir."We don't know how fire broke out. We live here for six years," he added.

Another resident said that camp residents had hired a private security guard to keep a check during night but he had not been reporting for duty since the past three months. "We are very poor people and have no source of income but we had to pay Rs 6000 per month to him. But for three months, the guard was not coming," said Javed.