3 of family suffocate in F’bad after AC explodes

Tragedy strikes Green Field Colony

- Debashish Karmakar

A predawn explosion in an air-conditioning unit turned a Faridabad home into a death trap on Monday, suffocating a couple, their 13-year-old daughter and their pet dog, while their 24-year-old son survived after leaping through shattered glass to the terrace of a neighbouring house.

The blaze, which broke out around 3am in Block B of Green Field Colony, filled the four-storey building with thick, poisonous smoke, officials said, trapping the family of four that lived on the second floor.

The victims were identified as Sachin Kapoor, 52, his wife Rinku, 46, and their daughter Sujan, 13. Their son, Aryan, a student in Dehradun, sustained fractures after jumping from near the terrace door to escape.

Investigators said the Kapoors lived on the second floor. The fire erupted in an air-condition ing unit on the first floor, rapidly spreading toxic smoke through the staircase and the second-floor flat occupied by the Kapoors.

Sachin also ran a stock market investment office from a rented third-floor flat in the same building.