Kochi: In the early hours of Tuesday, a massive fire broke out at a storage facility in Thumba Kinfra, a state-run drugs warehouse. A 32-year-old firefighter was trying to put out the fire when he was killed, according to the police.
The deceased, Ranjith, worked for the Chakka division of the state Fire and Rescue Services.
According to police, the tragedy happened when a portion of the fire-hit building collapsed over him crushing the hapless man while he was busy dousing the raging flames.
He and his fellow firemen rushed to the Kinfra Industrial Park nearby Thumba after learning that a major fire erupted in a warehouse there.
The drug warehouse, owned by the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited (KMSCL), was gutted in the fire by 1.30 am.
The security guard of the warehouse first saw the fire and informed the fire services, a police officer said. “A beam of the building suddenly fell upon the fireman, crushing him. He was rushed to the hospital but he succumbed to the injuries,” he told PTI.
Several units of fire service personnel rushed to the spot to douse the flames and the blaze was extinguished, he added.
Condoling the death, General Education Minister V Sivankutty, in a Facebook post, said the fire in the building was “unfortunate” and the government would carry out a probe into the incident.
With PTI inputs