NEW DELHI: Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood has ordered a third-party mapping and fire safety audit of all establishments across the capital, including those operating in residential areas, to expedite safety checks following the blaze at a building in Palam on Wednesday which claimed nine lives.
Sood directed third-party experts be engaged to map and audit all establishments in the city for fire safety compliance.
“The move aims to identify gaps in safety measures and ensure adherence to prescribed norms across commercial units operating in mixed-use areas,” he said.
“Every worker and every family deserves to feel safe, no matter where they are,” Sood said, adding that the government intends to eliminate gaps in safety coverage and strengthen preventive measures.
A fire broke out in a four-storey building in a congested lane near Palam metro station on Wednesday. The structure housed a cloth and cosmetics business in the basement, ground and first floors, while a family resided on the upper levels.
The blaze spread rapidly through the building, killing nine members of the family, including a 70-year-old woman and three young girls, one of them just three years old. Three others were injured while attempting to escape.
Earlier, Delhi Lt Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who chaired his first meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday, directed a comprehensive fire safety audit across the capital.
