Three die of suffocation

The victims had left a fire burning in their room.

RAWALPINDI:

Two men and a teenager died of suffocation on Thursday morning after they left a fire burning overnight in their room in Dhoke Kala Khan. Two others were shifted to a hospital in an unconscious state. 

The five men were living in a rented room adjacent to a furniture workshop where they worked on daily wages, said rescuers and the area residents.

The locals called in the police on Thursday noon after they noticed that the carpenters did not open their shop.

The victims were identified as 27-year-old Shahbaz from Lahore, 25-year-old Irshad Ali from Karachi and 15-year-old Haider Ali from Multan. They were pronounced dead by doctors at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

The two unconscious carpenters were identified as 28-year-old Muhammad Irshad from Gujranwala and 24-year-old Liaqat Hussain from Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Doctors described their condition to be stable.

Sadiqabad Station House Officer Tahir Kazmi said, “The incident appears to be a case of accidental death due to suffocation, but we will wait for the post-mortem report before closing the probe. There are no external injuries on the bodies. There was no ventilation in the room and the small hearth was switched on.”

He said the workers put pieces of Formica chip board on fire, closed all the windows and the door to keep the room warm and went to sleep.

The post-mortem report had not been issued by the time this report was filed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2012.