Suresh Kumar withdrew to a corner, shying away from the sizzling afternoon sun as much as from the glare of the media cameras that crowded the Mundka lane in northwest Delhi after a fire in an illegal factory claimed at least 27 lives on Friday.
Suresh, 35, a towaway minitruck driver, was weary from recounting ad nauseam to sundry media crews how he and local shopkeepers rescued “50-70 people” from the burning commercial building. “I have been recounting the rescue sequence since morning, no more,” he told a journalist who had shoved a mic in his face on Saturday afternoon. “I need peace. How can you ask me to speak? I lost two of my friends in the fire.”
