After the fire tragedy Uphaar cinema is now a urban decay in Green Park, South Delhi.
The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, occurred on Friday, June 13, 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, Green Park, Delhi, during the 3 to 6 pm screening of the movie Border. Trapped inside, 59 people died, mostly due to suffocation, and 103 were seriously injured in the resulting stampede.
The victims of the tragedy and the families of the deceased later formed 'The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy' (AVUT), which filed the landmark Civil compensation case. It won Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) compensation for the relatives and families of the victims in the case, now considered a breakthrough in civil compensation law in India. However the Supreme Court on 13/10/2011, nearly halved the sum of compensation awarded to them by the Delhi high court and slashed punitive damages to be paid by cinema owners Ansal brothers from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 25 lakh.
On the morning of the fire, at around 7 a.m, an explosion had been heard by the security guard, Sudhir Kumar, who along with his friend found smoke in the transformer room. The fire brigade and DVB (Delhi Vidyut Board) were informed - the fire brigade extinguished this fire and DVB completed their repairs between 10:30 am and 11 am by replacing two Aluminium sockets at its B phase.
The fire broke out at 5:10 pm. According to reports, it was caused when a 1000 kVA electricity transformer, maintained by the Delhi Vidyut Board (electricity Board) (DVB), and housed in the theatre's overcrowded basement car park, spread to and engulfed some 20 cars, where some 36 cars were parked instead of the admissible 18. The fire eventually spread to the five-storey building which housed the cinema hall and several offices. Most of the victims were trapped on the balcony and died due to suffocation as they tried to reach dimly marked exits to escape the smoke and fire. and found the doors locked.
An off-duty Capt. Manjinder Singh Bhinder of the 61st Cavalry of the Indian army and a talented horse-rider, out celebrating his success at a recent national games with his family and a junior officer at the movie hall, gave his and his family's lives up saving over a 150 people, on his personal initiative.
Rushing out along with his family at first, realising the gravity of the unfolding tragedy, he and his people went back inside, and tried to set order and guide people out to safety.
Fire services were delayed due to the heavy evening traffic and the location of the cinema hall, situated in one of the busiest areas of South Delhi. At least 48 fire tenders were pressed into service at 5.20 p.m. and it took them over an hour to put out the fire.[16] Later the dead and the injured were rushed to the nearby All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, where scenes of chaos and pandemonium followed, as relatives and family members of the victims scurried around to look for known faces.
A small fire had earlier broken out in the morning hours in the electrical transformer, which was soon put out and repairs carried out by DVB officials. Hours later oil spilled from the transformer and caught fire.
Source : Wikipedia
This was not the first instance of such fires - After an earlier transformer caused fire at 'Gopal Towers', a high-rise in Rajendra Place, New Delhi in 1983, the licences of 12 cinemas, including that of Uphaar, had been cancelled. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Licensing) who inspected Uphaar, had listed ten serious violations, however all remained uncorrected until the fire 14 years later.[8] On 6 July 1989, a fire had broken out at Uphaar cinema due to a fault in the sub station.
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