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Sultanpuri Fire: Owner used to lock doors from outside every day

The illegal shoe factory in a residential block in West Delhi's Sultanpuri area had caught fire early morning on Monday around 5 am killing four people.

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The outer facade of the shoe factory in Sultanpuri
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Almost three months after the Bawana factory fire that killed 17 people, the Sultanpuri factory fire seems reminiscent of the same.

The illegal shoe factory in a residential block in West Delhi's Sultanpuri area had caught fire early morning on Monday around 5 am killing four people. Both the illegal structures were locked from outside by the owners, leaving no way to escape the building.

Fifty men between 14 and 35 years of age used to work at the factory, which has been there for over a decade. The men, most from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, and a few from Agra used to sleep on the second, third and fourth floors, while the work of making leather shoes continued on the ground floor. The owner, Brijesh Gupta, residing across the street used to visit the factory every morning and evening to unlock and lock the doors.

"We came here two years ago and had been working ever since. Every evening Gupta used to lock the gates from outside and we all spent time talking to each other and to our families back homes" said Mohammad Ali, 20, a survivor.

Payments were given on per piece basis where every pair of shoe would get them Rs 30, and thus each man, working at the factory, would earn between Rs 8,000-9,000 per month.

On Monday morning, Gupta came to the site to unlock the doors and shouted from the street asking the laborers to run to save their lives. Neighbors say that once the fire brigade and the police arrived, he was nowhere to be seen. His house was locked from outside when DNA visited it.

The building, in a closed street, also had a cylinder on the top floor which caught fire after one of the men released its gas before it burst. The fire on both fourth and ground floors trapped the men in the floors between.

While the police have registered a case and investigations are in progress, neighbours say that there is one such illegal factory in every street in the area.

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