Man burnt alive in Shimla restaurant fire
SHIMLA: An unidentified person was killed in a massive fire that broke out in a restaurant near the auditor general’s office in Shimla at around 9pm on Tuesday night.
The mishap took place after a leaking cylinder caught fire, which exploded later along with three other cylinders in succession with deafening noise, fire brigade officials said.
“We received a call at 8.30pm and four fire tenders, two from Mall Road and one each from Chhota Shimla and Boileauganj, were rushed to the spot and it took one-and-a-half-hour to bring the fire under control,” they said.
The staff of the dhaba and customers ran out in panic but one employee was caught in the flames and charred to death, police said.
The dhaba, Tara Bhojanalya, was close to the Baba market and a major fire was averted as the fire brigade stopped the flames from spreading to adjoining buildings, the police said.
The body of the victim was recovered and sent for postmortem, they added.
Police have not ruled out the possibility of more deaths. “Prima facie, it appears that the fire started from the kitchen,” a policeman said.
Additional district magistrate (law and order) Hemis Negi confirmed the death of a person in the mishap.
Efforts were on to contain the fire at the time of filing of the report.