An eatery owner in Tangra in east Kolkata was electrocuted after he touched the iron shutter of his shop while trying to douse a fire in the kitchen on Tuesday morning.
Police suspect the insulation cover of the wire of a pedestal fan that was close to an LPG cylinder that caught fire had melted and come in contact with the iron shutter.
Banti Halder, 35, was electrocuted when he touched the shutter while pouring sand on the flames, police said.
Halder was cooking in his eatery on Gobinda Khatik Road when the fire broke out around 9am.
One of the eyewitnesses — a neighbouring shop owner — said the LPG cylinder in Halder’s eatery had caught fire. “Suddenly, I heard people screaming fire, fire. I saw thick fumes coming out of his (Halder’s) eatery. When I rushed there, people were pouring sand on the LPG cylinder to douse the flames. I, too, picked up sand when suddenly Banti Halder collapsed,” said Swapan Acharya, a neighbour and owner of another shop.
“We did not at first realise what had happened to him. But then I saw his body was sticking to the iron shutter frame and possibly he had got electrocuted,” Acharya said.
Halder was taken to the NRS Medical College and Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Officers from Tangra police station and fire department inspected the spot. “Findings of a preliminary investigation suggest the flames had melted the insulated coating of a wire attached to a pedestal fan and the live wire came in contact with the iron shutter frame,” said an officer of Tangra police station.
Another officer said forensic examinations of the spot revealed that the shutter became live after coming in contact with the wire. “One must immediately switch off all electronic gadgets, open the windows and alert the fire department if a fire breaks out. In this case, had the power supply been switched off immediately after the fire was reported, the electrocution might have been prevented,” the officer said.
Neighbours said Halder, who was the only earning member in his family, is survived by his wife and a school-going daughter.
The body has been sent for post-mortem. The police said the family had not lodged any complaint till late on Tuesday.
