Overview
- The blaze in Surat’s Limbayat area, reported Tuesday morning, left four women and a four-year-old dead after thick smoke filled their house.
- Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai said investigators suspect an electrical spark near a switchboard ignited foam kept close by.
- The residence doubled as a saree-packing unit with foam sheets and textiles that released dense, toxic fumes, and officials said the victims died of suffocation.
- Firefighters and ambulance crews found the family unconscious and rushed them to SMIMER and Civil hospitals, where doctors declared them dead.
- Police called in a forensic team and sent the bodies for postmortem, a step that comes as Surat faces scrutiny over fire safety in home-based work units after a deadly March 19 factory blaze.