Fire accident of suicide victim’s pyre leaves 11 with burn injuries

PUNE In a freak fire incident, 11 attendees during a funeral sustained burn injuries after an inflammatory liquid spilled from the pyre onto the attendees and there was a flare-up in a crematorium near Tadiwala road area of Pune on Saturday

PUNE In a freak fire incident, 11 attendees during a funeral sustained burn injuries after an inflammatory liquid spilled from the pyre onto the attendees and there was a flare-up in a crematorium near Tadiwala road area of Pune on Saturday.

In a freak fire incident, 11 attendees during a funeral sustained burn injuries after an inflammatory liquid spilled from the pyre onto the attendees and there was a flare-up (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Senior police inspector Pratap Mankar of Bund garden police station said, “Inflammatory material was used to try and burn the pyre, when it spilled on to others present close to it. We are investigating if it was diesel or anything else. A total of 11 people were injured of which four to five persons are in a serious condition.”

According to Mankar, the funeral was attended by close to 80 people, which crowded the crematorium. “Since it was crowded, people could not immediately come out after catching fire,” he said.

The fire brigade of Pune city was not informed about the fire incident that happened around 5:30-6pm on Saturday.

The funeral was of a 45-year-old wada pav seller who died by suicide. The man who was holding the can of inflammable material was identified as Anil Shinde, 53, a resident of Tadiwala road and was also injured in the incident.

Apart from Shinde, those injured in the fire were identified as Ardhra Kamble, 59, Yenabai Gade, 50, (45-50% burns) Nilesh Kamble, 35, Shivaji Suryavanshi, 55, Bandu Kamble, 74, Digambar Pujari, 40, Harish Shinde, 40, Akash Kamble, 31, Shashikant Kamble, 36, and Anil Ghatawal.

While others were taken to Sassoon General Hospital for treatment, Ghatawal was taken to Surya Hospital for treatment.