Six choke to death in Pune bakery fire

Pune/Mumbai: Six people suffocated to death in a fire that gutted a bakery in Pune’s Kondhwa area on Friday around 4.30 am. The fire broke out inside Bakes & Cakes bakery, whose only exit was locked from the outside. The victims all hailing from Uttar Pradesh were sleeping on the mezzanine floor inside the bakery shop.

According to an official from the Kondhwa police station, the victims could not escape from the fire as the door was locked. “The main shutter (of the bakery) was locked from the inside. The workers went to sleep after lighting the oven.” Preliminary probe suggests the fire could have caused because of a defunct exhaust fan or short circuit “As they had kept the oven lit the smoke quickly spread over the main bakery and mezzanine. The six men must have got trapped inside and died of suffocation,” said an investigating officer. Prima facie short-circuit is suspected to have caused the blaze. “We have registered a case and investigation is on,” an officer at Kondhwa police station said.

The six were rushed to Sassoon hospital, Pune where they were declared dead.  The deceased have been identified as Irshad Ayub Khan (27), Shanu Nasim Ansari (22),  Shakir Mukhatar Ansari (23), Fahim Nasim Ansari (21), Najim Naim Ansari (25) and Firoj Rahij Ansari 21. They hailed from Bijor and Lucknow in UP. The police has already informed the sad news to the family members of the deceased. A police officer said that some of the deceased were working in bakery since 2012.