79-year-old businessman dies in Aligarh house fire

Agra: A 79-year-old sports goods businessman died of suffocation after a fire broke out at his two-storey house in Aligarh’s Hari Om Nagar locality on Wednesday evening. Subhash Chandra Kalra, who owned Kalra Sports and was a well-known name in the city’s sporting goods trade, was alone at home when the fire erupted around 8pm.

His sons were at their business establishments, while other family members were away.Neighbours noticed the fire after hearing a loud explosion, suspected to have been caused by an air-conditioner compressor blast. By then, flames had engulfed a ground-floor room and dense smoke had spread through the house. Police and fire department personnel rushed to the spot and deployed three fire tenders. The blaze was brought under control within 30 minutes.

Kalra was rescued alive and taken to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, where he died during treatment.Chief fire officer Mukesh Kumar said, “The victim was found inside a smoke-filled room. A large quantity of sports goods, including rubber and plastic materials, had caught fire, generating dense smoke. He appears to have inhaled a significant amount of it.”Preliminary investigation suggested that the fire started from an inverter kept in an outer room and spread to nearby sports equipment stored in the house. Officials suspected a short circuit triggered the blaze and said Kalra also had a pre-existing respiratory ailment.