Trapped: Five suffocate to death in godown fire

Victims belonged to Bagh, Kashmir where their remains were sent

TIMERGARA: Five people, including two brothers, died of suffocation when a fire broke out in an underground godown of a bakery in Khal Bazaar, Lower Dir on Saturday night.

“The fire broke out around 1am in the godown of the bakery of Abid and Sajid Hussain,” a Khal policeman told journalists on Sunday. “The warehouse was built under the ground and was surrounded by some residential rooms.”

He added most of the people who are in the bakery business in Khal Bazaar belong to Kashmir. “The five men who died were living in the rooms by the godown and were from Bagh district in Kashmir.”

Police were patrolling the area when the fire broke out. “Police personnel started firing in the air to alert locals and soon a large number of people gathered and started to extinguish the fire,” he said. “The five men had fallen unconscious; the inferno had surrounded them from all the sides.” Later, a fire brigade reached the site and the inferno was put off.

The victims were rushed to District Headquarters Hospital Timergara where the doctors pronounced them dead. “Doctors said they died of suffocation.”

The bodies were sent to Bagh, where the deceased belonged. “However, residents of Khal later offered funeral prayers in absentia and closed the bazaar on Sunday to mourn the incident.”

The traders union of the district appealed the government to announce a financial package for the families of the deceased.  The inferno turned the bakery godown into ashes; a significant financial loss to the owners. Khal police registered an FIR of the incident and investigation is under way.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2015.