A major fire that broke out at a mattress manufacturing enterprise in Chandrabani area of Dehradun on Tuesday caused the death of a minor and has raised questions on the ill-planned developments and lack of fire safety measures in the provisional state capital and elsewhere in the state.
The fire took place in a building that was being used for both commercial and residential purposes in a residential area.
The commercial enterprise lacked the facilities and fire safety measures required in a commercial enterprise. The Dehradun Chief Fire Officer Sandeep Kumar Rana said that apart from one death, the fire caused loss amounting to about Rs 15 lakh.
The deceased minor was identified as Rahul (17), resident of Patelnagar. His father Pappu, who was working in a nearby building as mason said, “His vacations were going on so the owners asked him to look after their house in their absence. We also thought that it will be good for him to learn something extra during his vacations. We tried to get him out, but the fire and smoke was all over the place.”
Circle Officer (CO) Civil, Lokjeet Singh giving information regarding the incident to media said, “Three of the workers came out early, but the minor who was trapped inside suffered majorly. With the help of Patelnagar Police and fire services he was rescued. We are still investigating about the cause and will try to ensure that such incident doesn’t happen again.”
CFO Rana said, “Immediately after the information we received from control room, three fire engines reached here and brought the fire under control. The minor who was trapped inside was sent to the hospital through 108 ambulance service. Prima facie it appears that there was short circuit, a spark might have fallen on the mattress filled with foam and it immediately caught fire. It is too early to say about the losses, though if you count the number of mattresses it appears that the loss will be about Rs 15 lakh.”
When asked about the use of residential building for commercial purpose, “It is mandatory for the owners to take permission from the authorities concerned. So far, it doesn’t seem that the owner had any such permission.”
The owner of the building has been identified as Ramesh Chaturvedi, who lives on the first floor of the building with his family. He had gone to attend a marriage function in Kanpur with his family on Monday night.
It is pertinent to mention here that constable Geetam Singh from Patelnagar Police station, who got the minor out of the burning building at the time when it was not safe for anyone to go inside the building, also suffered some injury.