Anaj Mandi fire: Bodies of 35 victims from Bihar have been sent home in ambulances, say officials

New Delhi: Ambulances carrying the bodies of 35 of 38 Bihar residents who died in the Anaj Mandi fire, have left for their home state, a senior official said on Tuesday. “Of the total 43 people who perished in the accident, 38 belonged to Bihar. Ambulances carrying the bodies of 35 victims have left Delhi,” Shailendra Kumar, chief administrative officer, Bihar Bhawan, told PTI. “The bodies have been sent in different ambulances over the last two days. Each ambulance is carrying one or two bodies accompanied by the family members of the victims,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_7755441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Police and fire personnel carry out rescue operations near a factory at Rani Jhansi Road where a major fire broke out, in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI[/caption] The bodies of three victims are yet to be sent back. The authorities are waiting for their family members to arrive from Bihar so that the bodies can be handed over to them, Kumar said. The remaining five victims belonged to Uttar Pradesh. As the massive fire ripped through the four-storey building in the congested Anaj Mandi area on Sunday, most people inside died due to asphyxia because of lack of proper ventilation. They were trapped in the building as they were asleep when the fire started. The building housed illegal manufacturing units. The victims, most of whom were labourers, were rushed to Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) and Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital. Wailing family members of the victims spent hours at the hospitals’ mortuaries to take home the bodies of their loved ones. Khurshid Alam, who moved to Delhi several years ago from Bihar’s Saharsa, was at the LNJP hospital’s mortuary when the last ambulance for the day left. “Of the people who died in the fire, I knew eight. They were from my village Nariyar. The bodies of seven of them have been sent back home,” he said. Bodies of 14 Bihar residents were sent home on Tuesday. The bodies are embalmed at Kapashera for the onward journey, an official of the LNJP hospital said. Kumar of Bihar Bhawan said the bodies of all eight Bihar residents that were brought to the LHMC hospital had been sent back home.