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Pune: 4 office-goers charred to death, 5 suffer burns as minibus catches fire
The driver immediately sensed the danger and slowed down the vehicle as the fire spread to the front side, allowing some of the employees to get off the minibus
A vehicle of a private firm caught fire near Pune on Wednesday, resulting in four of the company employees travelling in the vehicle being charred to death.
According to a police official quoted in a PTI report, the deaths happened due to the emergency exit at the rear side of the minibus failing to open and thus trapping some employees inside the vehicle.
The minibus caught fire at Hinjewadi in the Pimpri Chinchwad area around 7.30 am, the official said. The report identified the company as Vyoms Graphics whose vehicle was carrying 12 employees of the firm from Warje to work in Hinjewadi at the time of the incident.
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The fire began near the seat of the driver, close to his feet, as the vehicle neared Dassault Systemes. The driver immediately sensed the danger and slowed down the vehicle as the fire spread to the front side, allowing some of the employees to get off the minibus to get away from the danger.
“Sensing danger, four employees immediately got off the minibus. Those at the rear side of the vehicle tried to escape through the emergency exit at the backside,” Kanhaiya Thorat, senior police inspector of Hinjewadi police station, told PTI.
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How did the fire spread?
According to a fire brigade official from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the fire spread rapidly from the front to the back, giving no time to the employees who managed to escape to rescue those who were trapped inside. The fire was later doused.
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The police official revealed the results of the preliminary probe into the incident saying that some employees failed to evict themselves after the exit door at the back did not open. This resulted in four of them being charred to death. Five other employees sustained burn injuries.
According to Hinjewadi deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Vishal Gaikwad, the bodies of the dead were removed from the vehicle and the injured were rushed to the nearby Ruby Hall clinic for medical care.
