Ghaziabad: Fire at pizza outlet leaves man, his 2 sons injured

Complainant Digesh Kumar, elder brother of the injured man, stated that his brother, Bhupendra Kumar, accompanied by his two minor sons, was visiting the pizza outlet when the incident took place

Ghaziabad: A 36-year-old man and his two sons, aged eight and eleven, suffered burn injuries during a fire that broke out in the kitchen of a pizza outlet in Vijay Nagar’s Pratap Vihar Sunday night, the Ghaziabad police said on Monday, adding that an FIR has been registered over the incident.

A first information report against the outlet owner has been registered under sections 287 (negligent conduct concerning fire or combustible material) and 125 (acts that endanger human life or personal safety of others), the SHO said. (HT Archive)

Complainant Digesh Kumar, elder brother of the injured man, stated that his brother, Bhupendra Kumar, accompanied by his two minor sons, was visiting the pizza outlet at around 8.15pm when the incident took place.

“Upon information, I rushed to the spot with my friends, and found none of the firefighting equipment being functional. My brother and two nephews were severely injured and we rushed them to a private hospital where they underwent treatment. On Monday, we got them referred to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where they are still under treatment. My nephews are still unable to open their eyes,” Kumar added.

He alleged that police showed an indifferent attitude.

“My nephew told me that there was a blast in the oven in the kitchen of the outlet… I have submitted a police complaint for action against the outlet owner,” Kumar added.

HT’s attempts to get comments from pizza officials remained unsuccessful due to the listed contact numbers being unresponsive. Also, the outlet remained shut on Monday.

However, Vijay Nagar police station’s SHO Shashi Chaudhary, said: “There was a thick smoke in the oven in the outlet, and the injured man, Bhupendra, rushed in to help. His two sons also rushed in to check what happened. Bhupendra poured some water on the emerging smoke. Some of the water also fell in the hot cooking oil kept in a utensil which splashed oil on the man and his sons, leaving them injured. There was one woman staff member present in the kitchen.”

A first information report against the outlet owner has been registered under sections 287 (negligent conduct concerning fire or combustible material) and 125 (acts that endanger human life or personal safety of others), the SHO added.

Police said the incident will be thoroughly investigated.

“We have registered an FIR. All allegations will be addressed in due course of the investigation. The reasons behind the incident are being investigated,” said ACP (Vijay Nagar circle) Ritesh Tripathi.