Fire breaks out at Sahibabad factory, 5 dead

Factory owner among those killed

Five people were charred to death in a fire that broke out at a cracker godown on Friday afternoon in Sahibabad’s Farrukh Nagar village. Ten fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames.

The owner of the godown, Pappu (55,) and four workers, Ashfaq (40), Rafeek (60), Sageer (40) and Qutubuddin (50) lost their lives in the fire that broke out at around 1 pm, said station house officer (SHO) Sudhir Tyagi.

Initial investigations have shown that all of them were inside the godown when the fire broke out, probably due to a simmering piece of beedi having being thrown by one of the workers. The police are also probing whether crackers were stored in the godown after getting due permissions. The extent of the damage has not yet been ascertained,” said a fire service official.

No FIR has been registered yet as the godown

No FIR registered yet, bodies sent for post-mortem

owner too had died in the incident, the police said.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, SHO Tyagi said. Deputy inspector general (Meerut Zone) K.S. Emmanuel also reached the spot to take stock of the situation.

Senior district officials rushed to the spot as relief and rescue work continued. The injured were admitted to nearby medical facilities.

Earlier on November 11, at least 13 people were killed in a massive fire that broke out in a garment factory in Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district.

The fire, apparently caused by a short circuit, broke out early Friday morning in a neighbouring Delhi district at a garment factory in Shahid Nagar area near the Jaipal Chowk, the police said. By the time fire tenders could douse the blaze, a dozen people were dead, a police official said.