Former IPL Cricketer Paul Valthaty, who played for Kings XI Punjab (now known as Punjab Kings) and Rajasthan Royals, lost his sister and nephew in the devasting fire incident in Mumbai. Joshua, six, and Glory Valthaty perished in the fire. Three other people experienced severe burns; one of them is fighting for her life after being completely burned.
Glory Valthaty (43), the sister of Paul Valthaty, and her 6-year-old son Joshua were killed in the blaze that started in the kitchen of Flat No. 121 on the first floor of Veena Santoor CHS and quickly spread to the fourth floor.
The fourth-floor tenants of Flat No 421, where Valthathy and his family stay, were unlucky after the blaze incident. However, the flat no. 121 residents, including a nonagenarian, were unharmed.
Senior fire official P R Parulekar said to Hindustantimes.com, that the fire department didn’t get a call till 12:30 p.m. even though residents claimed the fire started at 11:30 a.m.
According to Parulekar, the residents on the first floor forgot to close the door, which allowed the smoke to spread throughout the stairway and quickly ascend. The house caught fire from the foam furniture, electrical wiring, and other combustible things, which generated soot and led to suffocation and choking.
“In that one hour, the blaze took an ugly turn, If we had been informed earlier, it could have been controlled. The first-floor kitchen was in flames. Someone called the residents of Flat No. 421 to inform them about the fire and they panicked. They opened the door and tried to go to the upper floors and then downwards. They were trapped because they tried to escape,” P R Paulekar said.
Speaking to Hindustantimes.com Gladston Behara, Glory’s brother-in-law, Glory, who resides in the UK said that they visited her elderly mother in Mumbai for 15 days with his wife Noel and two children. Before moving to Scotland, Glory was a physician in a hospital in Mumbai.
“I too had come down from Kolkata to see Glory, When I got down from the rickshaw, I saw fire erupting from the building. Glory was at home with Noel, Joshua, and her daughter”.
“Paul was to drop his children to school and went downstairs along with his other sister Ruth, nephew, and Glory’s elder daughter. They heard an explosion by the time they reached downstairs,” Gladston Behara said.
Paul Valthaty, who is most known for his blistering century for Punjab Kings in the 2011 Indian Premier League (IPL), announced his retirement from first-class cricket in 2023.