Two sweetmeat shop employees — Atanu Ruidas, 22, and Bidhan Bauri, 21 — are suspected to have died of suffocation in their sleep after inhaling fumes from an oven they had lit in the room to beat the chill at the Durgapur Steel Township early on Monday.
A police officer said that eight employees, who are residents of neighbouring Bankura district, were sleeping in a room adjacent to the sweet shop on Monday. He added the workers had lit an oven to keep themselves warm in the airtight room.
Sources said that the incident came to light when Atanu called up shopowner Milan Mondal around 5.30am and told him that they were feeling unwell and suffering from suffocation.
Mondal soon rushed to the site and on opening the door of the room found eight workers lying unconscious.
He rushed them to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared Atanu and Bidhan dead on arrival.
“The death is likely to have been caused due to suffocation triggered by smoke from the live oven. Rising smoke from the oven in an airtight environment is likely to have led to carbon monodioxide poisoning and triggered hypoxia or lack of oxygen among the workers. However, an autopsy will reveal the actual cause of death,” a doctor at the private hospital, where the victims were rushed for treatment, said.
“The lack of oxygen initially leads to unconsciousness and eventually death,” the doctor added.
Echoing the doctor, a police officer said: “We are awaiting the autopsy reports of Atanu Ruidas and Bidhan Bauri. We can confirm the actual cause of the deaths only after their postmortem reports come.”
However, some residents living near the sweetmeat shop told the cops that they suspected an LPG cylinder was leaking.
The police were investigating all possible angles to know what caused the deaths, an officer said.