40 shops gutted in massive fire at South Delhi’s Nature Bazaar, crafts exhibition cancelled

Forty shops were gutted in a massive fire that broke out at Nature Bazaar, a popular handicrafts market in South Delhi’s Chhattarpur area, on Sunday morning.

The incident happened hours before the market opened for an ongoing crafts exhibition.

Stalls of some NGOs were among those destroyed.

As per aDelhiFire Services (DFS) statement, a distress call came in on their helpline at 7.37 am, stating that a fire had broken out at Nature Bazaar near Lado Sarai.

Five to seven fire tenders rushed to the spot, as locals and exhibition staff tried to douse the flames.

“After more than 90 minutes of fire fighting, the fire was finally doused at 9.10 am.

Around 40-50 stalls were gutted, though no injuries were reported,” a DFS official said.

The craft exhibition, which started on March 6 and was slated to end on March 16, was organised by an NGO named Dastkar, which provides a platform to indigenous crafts from all over the country to be displayed and sold.

Most of the shops which burnt were aligned with the NGO — 37 at Gali-e-Khas road and 5 which were part of these “Bonanza Bazaar” sales.

The NGO, in a statement, said: “In the early hours of this morning a devastating fire at the DASTKAR NATURE BAZAAR gutted stalls in the ongoing BONANZA Bazaar, totally destroying their goods, infrastructure and equipment.

The Dastkar team is working round the clock to mitigate the situation, secure the safety of the remaining stalls and site, as well as make payments to the participant artisans for their sales.

The remaining two days of the ongoing Bazaar stand cancelled.”
“Dastkar will do whatever we can to alleviate the losses and distress of the affected crafts groups,” it added.

DFS officials said that they are still verifying the cause of the fire.

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