Accidental fire kills woman in Coimbatore, three suffer burns

A 53-year-old woman from Ganapathy in Coimbatore died of burns after fuel meant for operating a generator spilled and caused a fire on Friday. Two of her relatives and a youth also suffered burns.

The deceased was identified as M. Padmavathy, a resident of KRG Nagar, who was teaching Tamil in a school at Ram Nagar.

According to the police, Padmavathy’s mother-in-law B. Ramalakshmi, 83, passed away on Thursday evening and the family was mourning her death. The body of the deceased was kept in a mobile freezer box inside the house. A generator was hired to power the freezer because of a power outage in the area.

The police said that diesel spilled on to a lamp that was kept near the freezer box when S. Sriram, 20, of Ganapathy poured the fuel into the generator and fire spread. As the fire also caught the fuel container, he dropped it, and fire spread further inside the house.

Padmavathi, her sister-in-law R. Banumathi,50, brother-in-law B. Rajeswaran, 55, and Sriram suffered burns. After receiving an alert on the accident, fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot and put out the flames. The four persons were rushed to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. However, Padmavathi was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

The police said that Rajeswaran and Banumathi suffered over 60% burns, while Sriram was stable. The Saravanampatti police have launched an investigation.

Published - November 15, 2024 08:02 pm IST