As many as 250 shanties were destroyed and over 1,000 men, women and children were left homeless in the cold after fire broke out in a dwelling of scrap dealers in Sarfabad village of Noida Sector 73 on Friday morning.

The fire, which started under mysterious circumstances around 2.45 am, also left 30-year-old Monirul Dafadar and his 6-year-old son Sanil Dafadar, natives of West Bengal, with serious burn injuries on their backs, besides destroying goods worth lakhs of rupees.

According to residents, the fire started from one of the shanties situated in a corner of the colony and soon spread across the area. They claimed that the fire tenders reached by 4 am, an hour after a call was made. By then, the fire had spread to the entire slum in the village.

“The fire started from the shanty of Norzul, a scrap dealer, who is currently in West Bengal. His house was locked. Soon, it spread through all the shanties and people started panicking. Over 1,000 people were rushed into a nearby under-construction building in Sarfabad even as some went back to collect their belongings. We had huge stacks of scrap including plastic and glass bottles and other waste kept in the dwelling and they were all destroyed. I lost cash worth Rs 13-14 lakh which I had kept to pay the scrap dealers,” said Aroz Khan, a contractor, who informally runs the scrap business in the makeshift colony.

Police said that at least 22 fire tenders were brought to the spot to douse the fire.

“We received information around 3.15 am regarding a fire accident in the shanties in Sarfabad. All fire tenders of the district were brought to the spot immediately and the fire was doused by 6 am. Barring two persons, no one was critically injured in the accident whose cause remains unknown,” said Shwetabh Pandey, circle officer 3, Noida Police.

The makeshift colony, which came up eight years ago, is located in the midst of high rises at the end of the Sarfabad village in Sector 73. Situated almost a kilometre from the main road in Sector 76, the shanties are connected with a service road.

As many as 250 shanties were destroyed and over 1,000 men, women and children were left homeless in the cold after fire broke out in a dwelling of scrap dealers in Sarfabad village of Noida Sector 73 on Friday morning. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

According to Khan, the land belongs to one Dharamveer Yadav of Sarfabad village who has given it on rent to him. The men residing in the dwellings are involved in scrap business whereas the women work as house helps in the highrises.

“I have been living here for the past six months with my son and wife. All my belongings in the fire have been destroyed and now, we have nowhere to go,” said Shahidul Mian, a scrap dealer, who is a native of Kolkata in West Bengal.

The district administration said that they have begun the survey of the number of families affected in the incident to initiate the process of compensation and rehabilitation.

“Compensation money will be debited into the bank accounts of those families that have Adhaar card or any other documentation. There are around 250 families living in the shanties. We have initiated distribution of quilts and food,” said Anjani Kumar, sub divisional magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

However, residents of the shanties say that they have lost all their documents in the fire.

“We had no time to save our belongings as the fire spread quickly through the shanties. All our documents, including Aadhaar card and passbook have been destroyed,” said Afroz.

First Published: Jan 04, 2019 16:58 IST