PATNA: Three members of a family were charred to death as fire reduced at least 22 houses to ashes at Chakkantoli of Rambhadrapur panchayat under Kalyanpur police station area in Samastipur district Friday night.
The deceased were identified as Kishun Devi (65), her daughter-in-law Sangeeta Devi (35) and her daughter Ganga Kumari (2).
A villager, Sadhu Sharan Rai, told TOI over the phone that Kishun’s husband Sonelal Rai (70) and Sangeeta’s husband Amlesh Yadav (40) somehow managed to escape as they were sleeping outside their house. Rai said it was yet not clear how the fire broke out.
“Everyone was fast asleep at the time of the incident. All the houses were made of mud with roof made of straw, tin or plastic sheet. The fire which erupted from Sonelal’s house immediately engulfed the other adjacent houses,” he said.
Kalyanpur police station SHO Braj Kishore Singh suspected either LPG leakage or burning of mosquito repellant coil in the house as the reason behind the fire.
“The flames quickly spread out due to dry straws giving no chance to the three females to run out of the house. They were charred to death inside,” he said.
Singh said a small fire tender stationed at the Kalyanpur police station and a large fire tender at the district headquarters were pressed into action with help of which the fire was extinguished.
“Altogether 22 houses were gutted in the fire. The occupants are yet to submit a detailed written complaint about the loss of properties caused by the fire leading to the death of three persons,” he said.
SHO Singh said the bodies were handed over to the family for cremation after postmortem.
Kalyanpur circle officer (incharge) Santosh Kumar Srivastava said a cheque for Rs4 lakh as ex-gratia payment had been handed over to the next of kin of the deceased.
“Besides, a financial aid of Rs9800 to each of the 22 families affected by fire is also being provided. Rs20000 against each of the deceased is additionally provided to their kin under Mukhya Mantri Parivarik Labh Yojana,” Srivastava added.