Chemist shop owner chokes to death in house fire in Jalandhar

The owner of City Medical Hall lost his life as fire engulfed his house in New Jawahar Nagar in the early hours of Friday. The fire reportedly spread from the lamp lit up in a small temple set up in the house.

Atul Sood, who owned the store near Nehru Garden Chowk, reportedly died because of asphxiation and his body was spotted by a Fire Department team from his washroom. His wife Monica was found in an unconscious state in her room.

The couple has three children - two daughters and a son - but all of them had been away when the tragedy struck. Their elder daughter is settled in Australia while the younger one is in Delhi. Their son had moved to Canada a few years ago.

Sood had accommodated four employees of his store in the lower floor of the house. It were these men who heard an explosion at 1:30 am and immediately came to the rescue of the couple. They alerted the fire brigade and all of them went to the upper floor. While Ram Lal lost his consciousness having inhaled smoke, the other three - Gopal, Bhagat and Jagdish - managed to come down using a ladder.

Sharing the incident, Gopal said, “The fire teams were quick to come. In 10 minutes of our phone call, they were here. It took them just 20 minutes to douse the flame. They spotted Monica and Ram Lal lying unconscious and with the help of the neighbours, got them immediately shifted to a hospital. The biggest shock for us was when they brought out the body of Sood”.

A fire brigade employee Prabhjot Singh was hurt in the rescue operation as a windowpane got smashed on his hand. He, too, had to be shifted to the hospital. The fire officials said, “There was smoke because of an explosion in the house. The victim would have died because of suffocation.”

SHO Police Station No. 6 Sahil Chaudhary said, “We shall ascertain the cause of the death from the post-mortem report of the victim”.