Heritage in Ashes: Handicrafts, Art Destroyed

In a devastating fire that broke out at Dilli Haat on Wednesday evening, over 30 shops were reduced to ashes within minutes, destroying decades of artisans' work and heritage crafts from across India.

- NITIN RAWAT @ New Delhi

The blaze, which started around 8:45 pm, engulfed a major section of the popular handicraft marketplace located in South Delhi.

According to police, a PCR call was received soon after the fire erupted.

Fire tenders reached the site and managed to bring the fire under control, but not before extensive damage had been done. "What we saved in 20 years was gone in just 22 minutes," said Haqeem Sajid, a shawl seller whose shop of Kashmiri Pashmina shawls was completely gutted.

Sajid, who has run his shop for 25 years, said the fire was so intense that even brass glasses melted in the heat.

"We have lost stock worth over ₹50 lakh. There were seven Kashmiri shops—one for papier-mâché and six for shawls. Expensive handmade Pashmina shawls starting from ₹10,000 were all destroyed," he said. Sajid's nephew, Shuja Abbas, added that the shop's entire inventory—painstakingly sourced from Kashmir—was reduced to cinders.

"We froze in the first moment. In the next, the fire had engulfed our shop. We just ran to save our lives," he recalled.