COIMBATORE: Three people were charred to death, and three others were battling for their lives after one of them attempted to transfer petrol from a 10 litre can to a one litre can near a gas stove while cooking around 12 am on Tuesday.
One more person sustained around 20 percent burn injuries and the injured persons were admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for treatment.
Sulur police said P Azhaguraja from Theni district was a petrol tanker truck driver and he was staying in a rental room at Muthugoundenpudur near Sulur.
Muthukumar, Dinesh, Veeramani, Chinna Karuppu, Manoj and Pandeeswaran, all hailed from Theni district and were working as petrol tanker truck drivers of private companies and they were staying with Azhaguraja in the room.
Azhaguraja was involved in a fatal accident at Ravathur Pirivu in Coimbatore city on Monday and a private school teacher died in the accident. A case was registered against Azhaguraja and later, he was let off on bail in the night. He returned room.
Police said Azhaguraja and his six others were consuming liquor and Pandeeswaran was preparing food around 12am on Tuesday. One of them was transferring petrol to a one litre can from a 10 litre can for a motorcycle near the gas stove and the fire suddenly spread into the can. The fire spread across the room and Azhaguraja, Muthukumar and Chinna Karuppu were charred to death in the fire.
Dinesh, Veeramani and Manoj sustained around 80 percent burn injuries and Pandeeswaran sustained 20 percent of burn injuries. The locals rushed to the house and alerted Sulur police.
The fire and rescue services personnel from Sulur fire station reached the spot. The injured persons were sent to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for treatment and the dead bodies were sent to the Government Medical College and ESI hospital for postmortem.
The injured Pandeeswaran gave a statement to the judicial magistrate at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital that they were consuming liquor and one of them was cooking in a gas stove. One of the deceased was trying to transfer petrol from a 10 litre can to a one litre can for a motorcycle near the gas stove and the fire spread.
