Fire breaks out in Sohna slum, 50-year-old ragpicker dies

GURUGRAM: A 50-year-old ragpicker was charred to death on Tuesday night in Sohna’s slum Javed colony after a fire broke out in a hut, police said.
Soon after the fire department received the information about the incident, fire tenders were rushed to the spot, however, till then three shanties were already gutted. The firefighters managed to douse the fire soon, thus preventing it from spreading to other shanties. They also took out the victim Khwajja, who has been identified as a native of West Bengal’s Nandigram.
“We got the information about a hut catching fire at 10.28pm on Tuesday and we reached the spot within five minutes. The fire was massive and we prevented it from spreading any further. When our team got to know that a man had suffered serious burn injuries, we called an ambulance to the spot and he was rushed to a nearby hospital, however, he succumbed to his condition,” said an official from the fire department.
The official said Khwajja was sleeping inside his hut and a candle was burning by his side which started the fire. Moreover, the plastic items collected and kept inside his hut spread the flames quickly. At that time, a small gas cylinder also exploded due to which Khwajja received severe burn injuries.
“When we reached the spot, the firefighters had already started the rescue operation. We came to know that a 50-year-old ragpicker had kept a lot of plastic items inside his hut which became the major reason for the fire to spread massively. We have started an investigation under Section 174 (police to enquire and report further) of the CrPC. We have also sent the victim's body for an autopsy,” said a cop from Sohna police station.