Delhi: Couple trapped while escaping fire at shop, suffocated to death

A 31-year-old man and his wife, who ran a grocery store in Delhi’s Tikri Kalan, were suffocated to death after they got trapped inside their grocery store following a blaze, police said on Saturday.

A PCR call was received on Friday where the caller informed about smoke and flames emerging from a shop in the neighbourhood, they said.

A police team rushed to the spot and found the shutter of the grocery shop partially lowered and the interior filled with dense smoke.

According to a preliminary inquiry, the blaze is suspected to have started due to a short circuit in the shop’s counter area, which quickly ignited plastic packets stored on and around it, a senior police officer said.

As the fire spread and smoke filled the confined space, an electric current passing through the shutter prevented the couple from exiting, the officer added.

“In an attempt to escape, the couple tried to pull down the shutter but got trapped inside, resulting in severe suffocation,” he said.

Natives of Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district, Vineet (31) and his wife Renu (29), who used to run the grocery store, eventually died of suffocation, the police said.

Also Read: Failure to enforce norms fuels slum fires in Delhi

The police team forced open the shutter using a wooden log and rescued the two, who were immediately taken to Oscar Hospital in Bahadurgarh where doctors declared them dead, they said.

The crime team and fire brigade inspected the spot, and further proceedings are underway, police added.