A Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer was killed when an air conditioner exploded at his residence in Vakkanampatti in Tirupattur district. The deceased identified as 42-year-old S Shanmugham was a sub-inspector at Chengalpet sub-division and was sleeping in the room when the accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning. His wife, Vetriselvi, survived with injuries and is currently undergoing treatment at Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai.
According to a report in Times of India, around 2.00 am Vetriselvi had left the room along with their daughter Sowmiya to accompany her to the toilet. Upon hearing a loud explosion, she rushed back to the room to find her husband engulfed in flames.
When Vetriselvi tried to rescue Shanmugham, she too was caught in the fire. Sowmiya who went into the room on hearing her parents scream, immediately alerted her grandfather Srinivasan who was sleeping in the next room. With help from neighbours, Srinivasan put out the fire and rushed the two to Tirupattur Government Hospital and from there they were taken to the Kilpauk Medical College. However, Shanmugham succumbed to his injuries. Jolarpet police along with fire and rescue personnel are investigating the cause for the explosion.
This, however, is not the first time an AC explosion has killed someone. In July last year, a couple from Chennai were charred to death when a spark in the AC unit caused the compressor to blow up. Their two sons, who were sleeping in the room next door, escaped unhurt.
Just days before that same month, Prasanna, a TV journalist, his wife and mother asphyxiated to death when a fire in their fridge spread to the other parts of the house, consuming plastic materials and suffocating all three to death.