NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      NEW DELHI (CWN) -- Over sixty inmates at a Missionaries of Charity home for mentally retarded and crippled orphans had a miraculous escape after neighbors evacuated the children even as flames from devastating fire in the adjacent slum cluster burnt down part of the home in New Delhi on Sunday, April 18.

      "People came from nowhere as soon as we first heard the cries of fire from the jhuggi (slum) and we moved the (crippled) children out" (to the nearby car repair center), Sister Rosebell, superior of the house, told CWNews. By the, the fire was close to the MC building.

      Even as locals tried to keep the fire at bay by throwing water at the front side of the building, the ravaging fire from the back side of the MC home rose over 40-feet and spread to the store room on the top (third) floor directly and reduced to sooth the medicines, packed food and woolen blankets stored there.

      However, the timely intervention of fire officials and locals prevented the building from being gutted even though the entrance portion of the building along with glass windows, doors, metal grills and electrical fittings were damaged in the fire.