Survivors of shelter fire cling to familiarity

A day after a fire gutted the Coolie Camp Night Shelter in Vasant Vihar, its five survivors, including a caretaker, have found shelter at a nearby temple, choosing to stay in the area because it feels familiar.

- Gargi Shukla

The blaze, that broke out in the early hours of Monday, killed at least two people and destroyed the belongings of five others. Later in the day, the NGO Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), which runs the shelter home sent twelve blankets and asked the caretaker to move the home-Jess men to nearby homes.

But 67-year-old Amarjeet Singh said the neighbours were his family. The fire not only cost him his possessions, but his livelihood — he had been working asa sweeper at the home since July 2023, when the previous worker quit.

“We will eventually have to move somewhere else but this place and people are all that I have,” he said.