Daijiworld Media Network - Dharashiv
Dharashiv, Nov 9: Six members of a family, including two children and two elderly persons, died after a massive fire broke out at a house-cum-grocery store in Yedshi village of Maharashtra's Dharashiv district during the early hours of Sunday. One person was rescued safely.
The fire broke out around 2.30 am while the family members were asleep on the upper floor of the building. Plastic goods and oil cans stored in the grocery shop reportedly caused the flames to spread rapidly.
Dharashiv Superintendent of Police Ritu Khokar confirmed that six people had died in the incident. She said four members who were sleeping upstairs died of suffocation, while two others died in the fire as they attempted to escape from the lower portion of the building.
"Six people died due to a fire in a grocery shop and the house above it around 2.30 am last night in Yedshi village within the limits of Dharashiv rural police station. It is a very unfortunate incident. Because there were a lot of plastic items and oil cans in the grocery store, the fire suddenly increased a lot," Khokar said.
She added that one young man from the family had survived and was stable.
The deceased belonged to the family of Govind Karande. Fire tenders from Tuljapur and Kalamb rushed to the village after receiving information about the blaze. Local residents, police personnel and fire brigade teams joined the rescue and firefighting operations.
Meanwhile, a separate major fire was reported at the Raheja Garden residential complex in Thane late Sunday night. The blaze spread across the eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the building, prompting the deployment of several fire tenders and rescue teams.
Emergency personnel rushed to the complex after receiving alerts and began firefighting and evacuation operations. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also visited the site to assess the situation and oversee the emergency response.
In another incident, a fire broke out on the 17th floor of a 32-storey residential building in Mumbai's Lokhandwala area of Andheri West on Sunday.
Fire tenders were immediately dispatched after officials received information about the blaze. Firefighters brought the fire under control, following which cooling operations were carried out. No further details about casualties or damage in the two urban fire incidents were immediately available.