’20-25 men in 6 rooms, 12-hour shift, no weekly off’: Former worker recounts why he quit Narela factory where 3 died in fire

Other injured persons were Pushpender (26), Akash (19), Mohit Kumar (21), Monu (25), and Ravi Kumar (19). Kumar suffered a simple injury caused by a falling brick, officials said. Relatives of the injured said the men were sleeping when the fire started.

At Safdarjung Hospital, Monu and Mohit were in the ICU while Pushpender was admitted to the Burns and Plastics ward. Safdarjung Hospital media spokesperson Poonam Dhanda said two of them suffered deep thermal burns, one with 20% and another with 55% burns. Pushpender suffered 15% burn injuries.
A resident of Kanpur Dehat’s Nahar Bazar, Monu had come to Delhi four years ago. Monu’s friend, Akhilesh Rajput, who works in a nearby factory, said, “He (Monu) was earning Rs 14,500 a month.” Monu is married and has a 3-year-old son.

Ramesh, a relative of Mohit and Pushpender, said both worked at the factory as they couldn’t find any other job: “Mohit has a BA degree. He was trying to look for better job options but couldn’t find anything. Pushpender had studied till Class 8.”

Two other injured persons, Akash and Lalu, were later taken to Sudarshan Hospital in Narela.

Neeraj claimed Safdarjung Hospital did not admit the two men. “Both of them are in a lot of pain and suffered burn injuries on their hands and stomach. It was getting hot in the afternoon and Lalu and Akash were in a very bad state so we decided to bring them to Sudarshan Hospital after Safdarjung doctors told us there was no bed available,” said Neeraj.

Neeraj said he called the factory owner in the morning, telling him about the tragedy. “Babuji (the owner) has assured us that we do not need to worry about the hospital bills and he will take care of it but there have been no talks of compensation,” he said.