Bid to kill mosquitoes immolates 2 in ambulance

In a horrific incident, two men were charred to death and another injured when the ambulance they were sleeping in caught fire in South Delhi’s Sheikh Sarai area. The incident was reported  around 12.50 am of Tuesday, an officer from the Delhi Fire Service said.

By the time two fire tenders rushed to the spot, two men had already charred to death, while the third one sustained burn injuries, the official added.   It took half an hour to douse off the fire.

The deceased — Rahul (24) from Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh, and Guddu (25) from Khanpur in South Delhi — have been identified as ambulance staffers. Three staffers were sleeping in the ambulance when they trapped in an inferno caused by mosquito coil sparks stoked by high speed wind. The driver of the van, Subodh (40), somehow managed to escape death. He has been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 40 per cent burn injuries.

Rahul had been working with the ambulance service for the last one and a half years, while Guddu had joined it 15 days ago. Delhi Commissioner of Police (South district) Romil Baaniya said a preliminary probe revealed that the vehicle belonging to RANA Services caught fire due to a burning mosquito coil.

A forensics team was called in to ascertain the cause of the fire. The bodies were handed over to their families after post-mortem, the police said.