Fire in Chandigarh electronics goods firm kills two, injures three

The deceased were later identified as Muskan Thapa alias Jyoti, 18, and Suhani, 18 — both residents of Phase 2 Ramdarbar. The three injured women workers, police said, had been rushed to a hospital, from where they were discharged after preliminary treatment.

Police, late on Monday, said that they had arrested the owners of the electrical firm — identified as Rajesh Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar, both residents of Mohali — while having booked the owner of the building from which the firm operated — one Joginder Singh, a resident of Sector 42 — in the case.

Investigators said that all the accused have been booked for causing death due to negligence under Section 304A, and common intention under Section 34 of the IPC.

The father of Muskan Thapa shows her photo. (Express Photo)

Interestingly, officials of Chandigarh Fire Department said that Monday’s blaze was a tragedy waiting to happen as the department had last Saturday (July 22) during a routine inspection of the premises where Monday’s fire took place had found several shortcomings.

As per details, the inspection had then revealed that the owners did not possess a fire safety certificate for operating the electrical firm from the building. Besides this, the fire officials had also found several loose-hanging wires, besides several other violations.

“I got a call from my wife, Rajna Thapa, who told me that a fire had broken out at the workplace of my daughter. I rushed to the spot and found the factory was up in flames and rescue work was going on. The fire brigade personnel later managed to bring out my daughter from teh building, along with another girl. Both of them were unconscious. They were subsequently rushed to GMCH-32. I followed them.
When i reached the hospital, I was told that the other girl had been declared dead. Some minutes later, the doctors declared my daughter dead as well. Muskaan was my eldest daughter. She was a Class 9 passout,” said Kamal Thapa, father of Muskan.

The other victim Suhani’s mother was in a state of shock and couldn’t speak. Her neighbours, however, said that the family hailed from Bihar.

Contacted, additional commissioner of Chandigarh civic body, Gurinder Sodhi, who is also the Chief Fire Officer of UT, told The Indian Express,“The owners didn’t have any fire safety certificate. Our officials, during a routine fire safety inspection, found several discrepancies on Saturday. We were to serve them a notice today for not complying with fire safety norms.”

Sodhi said that the fire tenders reached the spot minutes after the blaze first was reported. “Our fire tenders had reached the spot within minutes. The fire was contained within half an hour. The two women died of suffocation. Our firemen rescued them and rushed them to a hospital immediately, but they couldn’t be saved. The condition of the other rescued girls is stable,” Sodhi added.