Surat: Four women and a child are suspected to have died of asphyxiation after a fire broke out in their house at Bethi Colony in the Mithi Khadi neighbourhood of Limbayat on Tuesday. There were no visible burn injuries on the bodies when they were taken out.The deceased were identified as Shahnaz Ansari, 65, Husna Ansari, 18, Subhan Ansari, 4, Shabina Ansari, 28, and Khushnuma Ansari, 19. The fire broke out on the ground floor of the two-storey residence while the family members were inside. Around eight tonnes of textile products and plastic packaging material had been stored on the ground floor. The fire is suspected to have been triggered by a short circuit and spread rapidly due to the presence of the inflammable material. Officials said similar material was also stored on the upper floor, but firefighters managed to control the blaze before it spread to neighbouring houses. The ground floor had two rooms and a kitchen. In one room, textile products and packaging material was stacked to capacity, leaving only narrow walking space. As flames and smoke spread, the family ostensibly locked themselves inside the second room as there was no clear escape route. Locals rushed to the spot and tried to control the fire before firefighters arrived. Surat Fire and Emergency Services (SFES) received the alert around 11am and fire tenders soon reached the site and doused the blaze. Rescue teams then searched the house and found the victims inside the room. They were taken to hospital, where doctors declared them dead. SFES officials said the deaths were suspected to have been caused by asphyxiation. The bodies were sent for postmortems. An investigation is underway to ascertain the exact cause of the fire and to determine whether safety rules were violated. The family was engaged in textile product folding and packing work at the residence. “Around eight tonnes of inflammable material was in the house. Cooking gas cylinders were also found, but it seems there was no gas leak and no blasts took place,” an SFES official said. Deputy commissioner of police (Zone 2) Kanan Desai and Limbayat police reached the site. Limbayat inspector C H Dhokadiya told TOI: “Five deaths have been confirmed. We will hand over the bodies to relatives once the postmortems are over. We are coordinating with FSL officials, DGVCL and the fire department to know the exact cause of the fire. We are also in contact with SMC to know if the construction was according to plans submitted. Once we get these reports, we will decide the course of action. At present we have registered an accidental death case and launched a probe.”
