Pune: 4 Office-Goers Murdered 5 Injuries in Minivan Fire

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] March 19: Four employees of a private company died when their vehicle took fire near Pune on Wednesday.

A report from PTI sources a police official as saying that the deaths happened because the emergency exit on the back of the minibus failed, locking some workers inside.

A police officer said the van took fire around 7:30 a.m. in Hinjewadi, which is in the Pimpri Chinchwad area. The company mentioned in the report was Vyoms Graphics, and the vehicle was carrying 12 staff members from Warje to work in Hinjewadi at the time of the accident.

As the car got closer to Dassault Systemes, the fire sparked near the driver's seat, close to his feet.  As the fire spread to the front of the minibus, the driver immediately noticed danger and slow down the vehicle. This left some of the workers time to get off to safety.

"Four staff members got off the minibus right away because they felt there was danger."  "People in the back of the car tried to get out through the back emergency exit," Kanhaiya Thorat, a senior police officer at Hinjewadi police station, told PTI.

 How did the fire get higher?

A fire brigade official from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation said that the fire rapidly spread from the front to the back, left no time for the workers who were able to get out to help the people who were trapped inside. After that, the fire was put out.

The police officer who talked about the initial inquiry into the incident said that some workers were not able to leave because the back exit door did not open. Four of them were burned to death because of this. Five more workers suffered injuries caused by burns.

Vishal Gaikwad, the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) for Hinjewadi, said that the bodies of the dead were taken out of the car and that the hurt patients were taken to the nearby Ruby Hall clinic for medical care.