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Gujarat: Family of four women, one child dies in fire at Surat house
The victims were engaged in saree packaging work from their residence, where large quantities of the stock was stored.
Five members of a family, including four women and a four-year-old boy, were killed after a fire engulfed their house in Surat’s Limbayat area due to suspected short circuit, officials said.
The victims were engaged in saree packaging work from their residence, where large quantities of the stock was stored. According to Balram Meena, additional commissioner of police of Sector-1, the family received sarees and packaging material from an outside vendor and carried out the work inside their home.
The material stacked inside the cramped house fuelled the fire, which spread rapidly through the congested space.
“The house was filled with sarees and packaging material. It was congested with very little room to escape. The fire spread rapidly and the victims died of suffocation,” Meena said, adding that the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
Fire and emergency personnel rushed to the spot, but the victims had already succumbed to the blaze. Police said all the deceased were locals.
Earlier, on March 19, two labourers were killed and around 10 others injured in a separate fire incident at an embroidery unit in Surat.
The incident occurred in the early hours at a multi-storey complex in the Bharatnagar area, where embroidery units operate out of small rooms that also serve as living spaces for workers.
According to the police, a short circuit inside the unit triggered the fire, which spread rapidly due to the presence of LPG cylinders kept by workers. Two cylinders exploded during the incident, intensifying the blaze and causing burn injuries to several workers present inside the premises.
