Six injured jumping from adjoining building as fire guts Swaroop Nagar godown in Delhi

Six people, including women and children, were injured while escaping a house adjoining a godown-cum-factory that caught fire in northwest Delhi's Swaroop Nagar on Sunday, 13 September 2026, police said.

No one was inside the factory when the blaze began, and no injuries were caused by the fire itself. The staff were not on duty because it was a Sunday.

The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received a call about the fire at 11.05am. Fifteen units were dispatched and the blaze was brought under control at about 1.50pm.

The fire broke out on the ground and first floors of the building, which housed a factory manufacturing judo uniforms and boxing gloves. Those lower floors were used as a godown storing rexine scrap, or rexine katran, and cotton webbing.

The premises stood in Gali No. 2 of Khadda Colony in Swaroop Nagar, on a plot recorded as Khasra No. 357/58. The factory was operating within a residential locality.

Officials said the building comprised a basement, ground floor, first floor and a tin shed on the second floor, spread across an area of roughly 200 square yards.

Videos from the scene showed dense black smoke rising from the structure and drifting across the narrow lane.

According to the DFS, the 15 units deployed included five special water tenders, seven water bowsers, a breathing and fire tender, a quick response vehicle and a multipurpose vehicle.

Panic among neighbours

The injuries occurred not in the factory but in the house immediately beside it, as smoke pushed into the adjoining structure.

"Panic spread among people in the building adjacent to the factory, prompting six of them, including women and children, to jump from the building, resulting in injuries," a senior police officer said.

Accounts of how the six were hurt differ slightly between agencies. Police accounts reported by the news agency Press Trust of India attribute the injuries to the jump.

A report in Millennium Post said both panic and smoke contributed, and that one person jumped and injured their right leg. A Tribune report cited officials who described the six as having inhaled smoke.

Five of the injured were taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital and one was admitted to the Government Hospital in Burari. All six are out of danger, police said.

Footage circulated widely

A video that circulated widely on social media, apparently recorded from a nearby building, shows the escape from the neighbouring house.

In the footage, two children climb out through a small window and drop into an empty plot below. A woman then emerges through the same window and prepares to jump.

Residents gathered beneath the window are seen stretching out bedsheets and placing mattresses on the ground to cushion the falls, while others shout for more bedding to be brought.

The recording captures the alarm among onlookers, with one person heard calling out in Hindi for more sheets.

Recurring pattern in dense localities

The incident was reported to the Swaroop Nagar police station. The cause of the fire has not been officially stated.

Sunday saw multiple fire incidents across the capital. A large blaze at a plywood and polyvinyl chloride godown in Dallupura in east Delhi drew 35 fire tenders, and a further fire in Mayur Vihar Phase 3 required 14 fire engines.

Swaroop Nagar has recorded godown fires before. In June 2020, a blaze at a chemical godown in the same area drew 16 fire tenders, with no casualties reported.

Fires at storage units and small manufacturing premises operating inside dense residential pockets of Delhi have long drawn scrutiny over building safety and licensing.

The deadliest recent case was the May 2022 fire at a four-storey commercial building in Mundka, which killed 27 people and injured 40. The building had no fire department clearance and was not equipped with fire extinguishers.

No arrests or regulatory action in connection with the Swaroop Nagar fire had been reported at the time of writing.