One dead, four injured in Ghatampur fire

Kanpur: One person died, while four members of his family sustained burn injuries in a fire incident in a market-cum-residential building at the Purana Dakkhana Road in Ghatampur on Saturday morning.

According to police, the deceased, Ramkishan Gupta (70), lived with his two brothers and their families on the first floor. On the ground floor was their own market, which housed cloth and grocery shops belonging to all three brothers.

Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Deepak Sharma said, “During investigation, it was found that the fire started in Ramkishan’s cloth shop, ‘Lakshmi Vastra Bhandar’. After seeing smoke rising, he went downstairs and lifted the shop shutter to check, but flames and smoke filled the premises. He ran upstairs raising an alarm, and other family members woke up.”

He added that all the 14 family members climbed to the rooftop and tried to escape through neighbouring houses, during which few sustained burn injuries.

The injured were referred from Ghatampur Community Health Centre to Kanpur, while fire tenders, along with Central Industrial Security Force vehicles from the power plant, arrived and brought the fire partially under control in around four hours.

MLA Saroj Kuril and Lalit Soni, district minister of UP Adarsh Vyapar Mandal, met the victim’s family and assured them of all possible government assistance.