Two youths painting atop a tower die of burns from lit-fag-and-thinner fire

The deaths of Gamage Ajith (28) from Warakapola and Sisira Kumara (22) from Kegalle, last week were as horrific as they were tragic, after their bodies were engulfed in flames, 65 feet above ground, two separate coroners inquiries were told.

The young men had climbed up a telecommunications tower in Warapalana, Kirindiwela in the Gampaha district, to paint it. After they had climbed more than 60 feet, one started mixing thinner while smoking a cigarette. The smouldering end of the lit cigarette ignited the highly inflammable thinner vapour, engulfing him in flames.

The victim’s friend, on seeing his companion on fire, tried to douse the flames, which quickly spread and engulfed him as well.

Residents of the area, seeing two men in flames, climbing down the ladder, had rushed to the scene and taken the critically injured men to Gampaha Hospital.

However, Sisira Kumara died at the Gampaha Hospital, while Gamage Ajith, who battled for his life for a day, died on Monday at the National Hospital Colombo.

Sisira Kumara's and Gamage Ajith's postmortems conducted by Judicial Medical Officers Dr Ranjith Fernando and Dr Ali Mohamed Harooz respectively, confirmed that their deaths were due to severe burns.

Additional City Coroner Colombo told Court that Gamage Ajith’s death was due to an accidental fire caused by a cigarette .