BHUBANESWAR: In a most pathetic mishap, four members of a prominent business family along with the domestic help were choked to death after fire broke out in their three-storey residential building in Budheswari Colony here in the wee hours of Thursday.
The fire, believed to have erupted out of a short circuit in the first floor of the house of Satpal Singh, promoter of the Pal Heights Group of Hotels, engulfed the second floor where all the five were asleep.
The deceased included Satpal’s younger son Gaganpal Singh (40), daughter-in-law Bhavna (38), granddaughter Sohavi (10), grandson Ruveer (4) and domestic help Khusi Das (15). The two children and the maid had received less burn injuries compared to the couple.
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While Gaganpal, Bhavana, Sohavi and Khusi died before they could be rescued, Ruveer was still breathing and was rushed to the nearby private hospital which sent him away on the grounds that it did not have a burn unit. He was taken to another private hospital in Unit IV where the four-year-old was declared brought dead.
Satpal, his wife and elder brother were rescued by the fire fighters from the ground floor of the house. Gaganpal’s elder brother Harmanpal and his family of four were sleeping on the first floor. Sources said that Harman’s elder son was the first in the family to sense the fire and jumped to the swimming pool before raising the alarm.
It was the neighbours who spotted the fire first and informed the PCR which, in turn, alerted the Fire Station.
Deputy Fire Officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi said the fire is believed to have broken out before 4 am but by the time the fire station received the alert, it was 5.18 am. When fire fighters reached the spot, a plume of smoke was billowing out of the building.
Since the house was locked from inside, the rescue teams entered the second floor by breaking the glass windows which were reinforced by plywood.While Gaganpal and his wife were in one room, their children and domestic help were in the inter-connected room.Though exact cause of the fire mishap is yet to be ascertained, excessive use of wood during a recent revamp of the house appeared to have helped the fire spread.Family members from the first floor found it difficult to approach the second floor as staircase was also up in flames.
Though the house had six fire extinguishers, it unfortunately did not have a fire alarm system. The incident is being jointly probed by police, forensic experts, electrical inspector and fire officials. Police Commissioner YB Khurania also visited the spot.After post-mortem, the bodies were taken to Gurudwara at Janpath and then to Satya Nagar cremation ground where the final rites were performed.
Satpal, a prominent member of the local Sikh community, is also president of Gurudwara Singh Sabha.