“We Are Still Hoping They Survived,” Families of Those Missing in Mundka Fire

For those waiting outside the building on Saturday evening, the anxieties were running high. Some of them said that they would have to go inside and take the bodies out themselves as the process was taking too long.

On Sunday morning, a relative of Monica said that they were going to make rounds of the building as well as the hospitals.

Narendra, who stayed in Prem Nagar in Delhi, left at 9 am for work like every other day, recalled his mother Rajrani. “He never spoke about his work much but I thought he liked it,” she said. Referring to him as a camera kaarigar (craftsman), she said that he used to make CCTV cameras for a living.

The family was waiting outside the hospital mortuary since Friday night. His uncle Gajraj said, “My sister was shown a few bodies but there were only charred bodies so she could not identify him. They have conducted DNA tests to identify.” His mother added that he had a meeting in the office on the day of the fire.

According to Shazia Parveen, who worked at the company and survived the blaze, the meeting was a motivational speech by the supervisors, where workers were encouraged to do something big.

“Sir was asking us what we can do to take the company… that is when the fire broke out. There were around 300 people inside,” said the survivor.