Delhi: Teen dies saving family in Rithala slum fire

Delhi: Adina Bibi, almost 45, sits perplexed, staring into the void. A sense of longing is etched deep in her eyes.

“She sacrificed herself to save us. She did not think about herself at all,” Bibi keeps muttering under her breath, referring to her 17-year-old daughter.

Her daughter was engulfed in flames during a blaze that levelled nearly 100 makeshift tenements in the early hours of Thursday, March 5.

Residents say they have lived in the settlement for nearly three decades. Now, much of their lives has been reduced to rubble and ash. Among the debris are school pages scribbled by young children preparing to attend a nearby government school for the first time. A red tick mark on a partially burnt page stands as a sombre reminder of what has been lost.

A desperate attempt to save family
While the entire settlement was gutted, Bibi and her husband lost far more than their home.

Their daughter had tried to get her mother and sisters to safety before leaving the burning structure herself.

“There was a lot of commotion outside. My daughter woke me up when it all started at around four in the morning. She shook me to wake me up. I asked her to go outside once and check what was happening. That was when she came back and told us to leave because of the fire,” Bibi said.

The teenager helped her mother and three sisters escape before attempting to leave last. However, before stepping out, she tried to recover a few belongings from inside.

“She stayed back and said that she was getting the new clothes that I had had sewn for my son’s wedding. She was also trying to get whatever savings we had left,” Bibi said.

When her body was later recovered, it was found at the spot where the clothes had been kept. The family also lost Rs 30,000 in savings.

“Everyone loved her here. I am not her grandmother but she would gladly keep calling me nani. We were late to rescue her, since most men had also gone for work then. As the curtain caught fire, it spread,” said another resident Injira Bibi.

Burnt severely, the 17-year-old died while trying to save her family’s belongings. Her brother’s wedding was scheduled for a fortnight later.

Fires recur in the area

Residents say such incidents are not uncommon.

In November 2025, an adjoining slum — also inhabited largely by migrants from West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — was affected by a similar blaze. Nearly 200 makeshift homes were destroyed in that fire, which resulted in one death.

Known locally as Bengali Colony, the settlement has been devastated by fires three times in the past decade. Despite this, residents have rebuilt their homes each time and returned to the same location.

But rebuilding also requires documentation — something many residents lose during fires.

Often, such incidents leave families without shelter, identity documents or savings. While one settlement has managed to rebuild after the November fire, residents of the recently affected cluster say they see little hope.

“Not a single authority has come to visit us. During elections, they are the first to arrive and we give them our votes, but when tragedy strikes they are nowhere to be found,” said resident Mumtaz Bibi.

Most residents work as ragpickers linked to a plastic recycling business run by a woman named Asha.

Struggle even to bury the dead

The lack of support has made recovery difficult for families.

Bibi said her family initially struggled to arrange money even to bury their daughter.

“My husband finally got Rs 1,000 from a neighbour who was willing to help. Nobody is that selfless anymore,” she said.

Asha, a resident of Rohini Sector-5, said she owns the land where the two slum clusters are located. She claimed she had also received threats from local villagers in Rithala.

“I had bought the land from a person who is now dead, but his sons and grandsons have been forcibly trying to get me to hand over the plot to them. They refused to believe that a patta (land deed) exists,” she said.

She added that she had filed an FIR against them after they allegedly threatened to set the slum on fire.

Fire incidents across the city

According to Delhi Fire Services (DFS), several areas in the city continue to report repeated fire incidents.

Bengali Colony under the Rohini Sector-5 station, Sanjay Colony under the Okhla station and settlements near the Ghazipur Dairy Farm under the Mandavali Mayur Vihar station have witnessed multiple fires in recent years.

Atul Garg, Director of the Fire Safety Management Academy, told Patriot that many emergency calls originate from west Delhi, which houses several industrial clusters.

“Rohini and Wazirpur have historically seen the highest number of fire incidents and emergency calls,” he said. “But the congested structure of slum clusters also contributes to the spread of fires.”

At present, residents of the Rithala slum are receiving assistance from several NGOs, which are helping them raise funds to rebuild their homes.

Two die in Paharganj blaze

In a separate incident, two charred bodies were recovered from the fourth floor of a building in Paharganj after a fire broke out on Wednesday, March 4, a DFS official said.

The emergency call was received at 4:38 pm on Wednesday. The fire originated in a toy warehouse operating from a temporary structure on the building’s fourth floor.

Twenty-five fire engines were deployed to the spot.

The building has a ground floor and four upper levels. Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours before bringing it under control.

The fire was finally extinguished around 3:20 am on Thursday, after which the two bodies were discovered inside the warehouse, the official said.