Mumbai: Three persons were killed after they sustained serious burn injuries in a fire that broke out in a temple in Kandivali, early on Sunday. The incident occurred at Saibaba temple on Bandar Pakhadi Road in Kandivali (West), police and forensic officials were on the spot to check any foul play.
"The fire broke out at the temple due to short circuit at around 4.15 am, according to the call received at the control toom. After being alerted, we rushed to the spot and the blaze was doused by 4.40 am. It was a level-one (minor) fire, however victims sustained 90-95 per cent burn injuries," a fire brigade official said.
"Three persons got injured in the fire and all three were declared dead," the official added.
The three people identified as Subhash Khode (25), Yuvaraj Pawar (25) and Mannu Radheshayam Gupta, were rushed to the nearby Shatabdi hospital at Kandivali (w), where Khode and Pawarwere declared brought dead. Gupta had sustained 90 to 95 per cent burn injuries and declared critical by the authorities at the Shatabdi hospital, from where he was shifted to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General (Sion) Hospital. Gupta was later declared dead at 1.30 pm on Sunday.
According to the locals, the trio were the caretakers of the temple. They were suspected to be drunk on Saturday night before going to sleep. According to locals, there was a small blast, and the fire started erupting, as the trio were drunk they did not realise the fire. However, before the fire brigade reached the spot, all three of them were trapped and sustained serious burn injuries.
Charkop Police has registered a case of accidental death in this connection.
"We checked the CCTV footages, just to verify if there was any foul play. We saw the fire starting and spreading in the footage, however we did not see anything else. Prima facie this looks like a fire caused due to a short circuit. For now we have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and we are investigating the case with all angles, we have sent the samples collected from the spot for forensic analysis to ascertain the cause of fire," said Rajendra Satpute, senior inspector (acting) of Charkop police station