According to a report by the Times of India, the second fire in two days in the New Delhi area caused significant damage to companies involved in the plastics recycling industry in the country. The report notes that the fire, April 11, destroyed roughly $11.2 million in material that was being stored.
Fire officials, according to the article, say the fire may have been set deliberately by people who sought to force out the plastics recyclers in the area. The area is Asia’s largest plastic scrap market in Mundka area of west Delhi.
Fire department officials too said the blaze may have been started deliberately. The salvage operation was hindered by lack of water, with fire officials having to depend on the nearby DMRC station to fill their tanks.
The incident came a day after a major fire broke out in a container depot in south Delhi’s Tuglakabad, one of the biggest such facilities in Asia, which destroyed 24 of the 25 warehouses storing materials slated to be exported. The loss was estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Divisional Officer (east) DFS, Vijay Bahadur said the fire broke out in four places 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 the wind. But it was calm in the morning. This raises suspicion," he said. Asked why it took so much time to control the blaze, hse said the material which caught fire was PVC (plastic) and water does not reach its inner layers very fast.
President of the market association, Omprakash Buswala, said, "The fire is an deliberate attempt by certain people to destroy our business. They want us to shift elsewhere. There are nearly 4,000 traders in the market, and we have been paying rent for the land. The government must do something for us. We have suffered a huge loss."