Diwali night fires in Thane, Delhi, Ujjain and Nagpur: dozens rescued, no deaths reported

Fires broke out in at least a dozen buildings across Maharashtra, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat on Diwali night, Sunday, November 8, 2026, and no deaths have been reported. In Thane, firefighters and disaster teams brought about 50 residents out of a smoke-filled high-rise, and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who went to the spot, said there were “zero casualties”.

Thane: residents led out through smoke

The Thane fire hit the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Raheja Garden residential complex on the night of the festival, Shinde said. Smoke trapped residents on the upper floors, and the Thane fire brigade and the municipal disaster response team began bringing them down. Drones were used to see where people were. Shinde said about 50 people were rescued. Other accounts of the night put the count lower, at about 30, and one report names the Raheja Carline tower on LBS Road near Teen Haath Naka, with the flames spreading as high as the 14th floor. Residents there blamed sparks from fireworks. The fire service has not given a cause.

Shinde, with MP Naresh Mhaske, MLAs Niranjan Davkhare and Ravindra Phatak, DCP Prashant Kadam and local corporator Vikas Repale, stayed at the site as fire and civic staff worked late into the night. No injury has been reported.

The same night, a fire broke out at a shopping centre in Sector 21 of Turbhe in Navi Mumbai, and firefighting units were sent. No casualties have been confirmed there. Fires were also reported at a garage in Mumbai’s Dongri area, an apartment in Pune’s Wadgaon Sheri, a warehouse in Pune’s Phursungi, and a TVS showroom in Nagpur’s Savarkar Nagar, where several two-wheelers were burned and firecrackers are blamed.

Delhi: a factory and a four-storey home

In Delhi, the Delhi Fire Services said a blaze began at a rubber factory in the Narela industrial area at 8:33 pm and sent seven fire tenders. By about 1 am on Monday the fire had been put out and cooling operations were on. The cause is not known and no injuries were reported.

Later in the evening, at about 10 pm, a fire started in a four-storey residential building with about 12 flats in Mohan Garden, west Delhi. A fire service official said it began in household items after firecrackers were set off. Seven people from three families were rescued: police and residents roped four of them out before the fire brigade arrived, and firefighters brought out the other three. Ankit Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka), gave the rescue details. Six fire tenders were sent and the fire was under control by about 11:30 pm. The first and second floors were the worst hit. No one was hurt.

Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat

In Ujjain, a fire broke out at about 10 pm in the Vishwakarma Hardware building in the Nagjhiri area on Dewas Road. Collector Roshan Kumar Singh said four fire tenders were sent at once and everyone was brought out safely, including an elderly man on the third floor, who was taken to hospital. In Dewas, a fire hit an old wooden building near the vegetable market at Jawahar Chowk. Fire officer Jitendra Sisodia said the city had about three fires that day and that firecrackers were the suspected cause.

A scrap dealer’s warehouse caught fire in Chhota Devi Kheda village in Lucknow’s Ashiyana police area. In Bhubaneswar, a government silk production office in Shikharchandi was on fire, and in Surendranagar, Gujarat, a house in Vijay Society on Dal Road. Fire tenders reached all three, and the causes and any losses have not been confirmed.

Diwali night, November 8

1. About 8 pmFire on the 8th to 10th floors of a Thane high-rise, according to Deputy CM Shinde.
2. 8:33 pmFire begins at a Narela rubber factory in Delhi; seven tenders sent.
3. About 10 pmFires in a Mohan Garden building in Delhi and a hardware building in Ujjain.
4. About 11:30 pmMohan Garden fire under control; seven rescued.
5. About 1 am, November 9Narela fire out, cooling under way.

Why it matters

Diwali night is the year’s peak for fire calls. Last Diwali, the Delhi Fire Services answered 269 fire calls in a single night with no major mishap. This year the city went into the festival with its firecracker rules under a Supreme Court order that allowed only certified green crackers on November 7 and 8, and a full ban returning on November 9 (see our report on the order). The air the next morning was severe at several stations (our report on Delhi’s AQI). In Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has barred firecrackers on public streets, lanes and footpaths at every festival (our report on that order).

The Karol Bagh market fire on November 6, which damaged up to 45 shops, had already kept the Delhi service busy days before the festival. Several of Sunday night’s fires, in Mohan Garden, Nagpur and Dewas, are linked by officials or witnesses to firecrackers, which is why the ban’s return on Monday matters for the next few days.

What happens next

The cause of the Thane fire, the Narela factory fire and most of the others has not been stated by the fire services. Firecracker restrictions in Delhi-NCR are fully back in force from Monday, November 9, under the Supreme Court’s order, and the full account of the night’s losses is still to come from the fire services.