Caution
Special Correspondent, Chennai
Three members of a family, including an eight-year-old child, died on Monday night following a suspected gas leak from the air-conditioner in their house on Valluvar Street in Mettukulam, near Koyambedu.
Based on preliminary investigation, police said that the victims --
S. Saravanan (38), his wife Kalaiarasi (30) and their son Karthik -- had gone to bed after switching on the air-conditioner on Monday night. Since none of them came out of the house on Tuesday morning, neighbours tried calling them but to no avail.
They then informed the Koyambedu police , who arrived and broke open the door of the house. On entering the bedroom, the police found the three lying unconscious, and called ' 108 ', Doctors later declared all three dead.
The accident is believed to have been caused by a snag in the
air-conditioner, leading to a gas leak.
The police believe an electrical short-circuit could have been
triggered by faulty operation of the genset, used to run the
air-conditioner following a power outage in the area.
A senior police officer said all the three persons could have died
of asphyxiation caused by carbon monoxide poisoning though the
chemical report is not ready yet. The officer said the combination of
an enclosed space and gas leak from the air-conditioner led to the
tragedy.
Naresh, a neighbour, said the locality faced intermittent power cuts due to a transformer glitch on Monday night.
The bodies of the three persons were sent to the Government कीलपौके Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem. Koyambedu police have registered a case and are investigating.
J. Stalin, proprietor of an air-conditioning servicing unit in
Tambaram, said voltage fluctuation can damage air-conditioners.
He said an electrical surge brought on by the running of the genset and resumption of power supply would have burned the transformer normally made of plastic, leading to leakage of gas and noxious chemicals.
To prevent such accidents, residents should switch off the
air-conditioner during power outages and wait for power supply to resume, he said.
( The Hindu, Chennai city edition, Wednesday, October 3, 2018 )
Courtesy : MPS
No comments:
Post a Comment