Human beings live in an environment to which they are physically and attitudinally attuned and depend on it for their survival. In the course of living in this environment, the physical environment may influence or be influenced by the social behaviour of the human beings. While living in this environment, human beings have been successfully able to adapt to the pressures exerted on them by nature and their way of living. They did so by modifying their behaviour and surroundings to adjust to daily hazards. However, they have not been successful in adjusting to less frequent events .As the local community is the first responder during any disaster, community preparedness plays a vital role in mitigating the effects of disaster as well as in the relief and rescue operations. Disaster mitigation involves various stakeholders like government, non-government organizations and community. To understand better, Delhi State is selected.Delhi is the political capital and is centrally located city of India. It had to withstand all disasters having consequences for its sustainability and existence. Delhi is extremely vulnerable to disasters. In slums and shanties, people reside in confined areas and also do fire linked works inside their shanties to earn livelihoods. This renders them vulnerable to fire incidences. Most of these incidences can be avoided. Fires in these slums impose significant social and economic costs including loss of life, destruction of health, property, and job while the interlinked physical and social vulnerabilities expose the urban poor not to single but multiple risks. Most of the information on the issues of sustainable disaster relief measures is available. But the key role of district administration and community at local level and sustainable self-reliant relief measures are not covered adequately. District administration is the key stakeholder as it provides for infrastructure and other resources in disaster management. District administration is also responsible for coordinating and monitoring a disaster. Governance at the district level is in the hands of district personnel who play an important part in dealing with disasters at a micro level. The migrants are generating slums haphazardly and these locations are at high risk of disasters. In order to understand the role of district personnel, the research study has delved into slum fires as a case study.An attempt is made to understand the nature of governance at district level, which is in the hands of district personnel who play an important part in dealing with disasters at micro level.