Pune: A dairy owner (65) died of severe burns in a fire in his shop at Sukhsagarnagar shortly after Thursday midnight.
The Bibvewadi police identified the victim as Ramdas Salunke. He was sleeping inside his shop bolting the shutter from inside when the fire broke out.
Fire officer Sunil Naiknaware from the Gangadham Fire Station said prima facie sparks emanating from the wiring of a refrigerator and falling on Salunke’s bedroll might have caused the fire.He said residents in the vicinity saw thick smoke billowing out of the shop around midnight, and alerted the fire brigade and the police.
The residents broke the shutter’s locks to enter the shop and doused the fire before the fire brigade could reach the spot. They also summoned an ambulance.
Salunke was moved to the ambulance. Doctors in the ambulance examined and declared him dead, the fire officer said. The victim’s body was sent to the Sassoon General Hospital for post-mortem.
Senior inspector Shankar Salunkhe of the Bibvewadi police said the victim was a resident of Maharashtra Housing Board in Yerawada. Residents of the area told the police that he was in the habit of sleeping in the shop to receive goods early in the morning.
An inquiry into the fire revealed that there was no ventilation in the shop, congested with dairy products. The fire apparently broke out because of a short-circuit in the wiring of a refrigerator, senior police inspector Salunkhe said, adding that a complaint related to accidental death was registered.
