Cinema fire one of the worst in Indian history
The Upahar cinema blaze is one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history.
The two major fires before this were the Dabwali (Haryana)
inferno which claimed the lives of about 450 people, mostly
children, on December 22, 1995, and the Baripada (Orissa) blaze on
February 22 this year that resulted in the deaths of more than 200
devotees.
Just last week, on June 7, 39 people were killed at the Brahadeeswarar
temple in Thanjavur.
In the Dabwali incident -- the country's worst fire -- at least
452 children, their parents and teachers were burnt alive when
the annual day of the DAV school was being celebrated in
Dabwali in Haryana's Sirsa district.
About 200 devotees were charred to death and as many injured in
a blaze that swept through a religious congregation in the north
Orissa town of Baripada, 300 km from
Bhubaneswar. Over 10,000 people were present at the 46th three-day conference
of Swami Nigamananda when the incident took place.
The lack of sufficient exit points was the reason for the high death toll; both incidents were caused by short circuits.
Most of the deaths in last week's Thanjavur fire were caused by a stampede.
Nineteen people were killed when a fire broke out in the crowded
Khari Baoli area of the capital following a suspected short-circuit
in a Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking transformer. The
death toll in Khari Baoli was the worst the capital had witnessed
in the last two years before Friday's incident.
Eight children and one woman were burnt to death in
the fire that broke out in a cluster of jhuggis
in the new Seemapuri area of north-east Delhi on May 20, 1995. At
least 75 hutments were gutted in the fire that took the fire brigade
about half an hour to control.
Another seven people were killed on June 4 the same year when
a fire engulfed a two-story building at Shastri park in east Delhi.
All the victims died of asphyxiation.
A major fire destroyed the Airbus departure terminal at
Delhi airport early on October 29, 1996, suspending services at both
the domestic and international airports for more than three hours
and delaying scores of flgihts.
A devastating fire cut a swathe of destruction through the
22nd Calcutta book fair on February 2, destroying all but
40 stalls and leaving oneperson dead.
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