Five members of a family, including a six-month-old infant, were suffocated to death when a fire broke out in their house on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ground floor of the house was being used to store LPG stoves and appliances while the family stayed on the first floor of the house in Geet Vihar colony of Indira Nagar police limits.

Doctors at the post-mortem house at the King George’s Medical University confirmed that four adult members were suffocated to death while the infant girl suffered over 40 per cent burn injuries.

Circle officer, Ghazipur, Deepak Singh said a team of forensic experts had been called to examine the spot.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolences and issued an order to the Lucknow divisional commissioner to probe the incident and fix responsibility for any negligence in a week’s time.

According to police, the deceased have been identified as Sumit Singh (32), his wife Julie (28), sister Vandana (26), Puneet Singh aka Dablu (32) and infant daughter Baby. Sumit’s father Tirathraj Singh, who owns the house, had gone to his native place in Patti, Pratapgarh at the time of the incident. His wife Meena and other family members stay in Pratapgarh.

Fire service officials said the initial findings suggested that the fire broke out due to a short-circuit in the meter box and air conditioner on the ground floor when the family was sleeping on the first floor of the house.

The fire first spread on the ground floor and the smoke filled the entire house. Soon, it spread to the first floor of the house where the family members were sleeping.

The fire officials said the fire service control room was informed at 2.45 am after locals spotted smoke emanating from the house. They added that the family apparently fell unconscious during sleep due to carbon monoxide fumes caused due to the fire and could not move out of the building.One of the adult members tried to escape but was suffocated to death supposedly after finding no way out.

The fire officials had to break a wall to enter the house from the backside as the approach route from the front was narrow. The flames were doused after almost five hours and the bodies were taken out.

First Published: May 02, 2019 01:32 IST