Woman, two daughters die as room heater catches fire in Hamirpur

Kanpur/Jhansi: Three members of a family, including a woman and her minor daughters, were burnt alive in sleep in their home in Jalla village under the limits of Kurara police station in Hamirpur district late Wednesday night when an electric room heater caught fire due to possible short-circuit resulting in fire.
Senior officials including DM Hamirpur, Chandrabhushan Tripathi and SP, Shubham Patel also reached the spot as soon as they received the information. Several fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire.
It is being said that one Raju Pal works as a daily-wager in Delhi, while his wife Anita (28) used to live in the village with her two daughters Mohini (6) and Rohini (3), besides her in-laws.
In order to beat the cold, Anita installed an electric heater inside the room and slept on the bed with her two daughters. However, late at night smoke followed by flames started rising from her room.
Her in-laws raised alarm following which other villagers rushed to the spot and informed the police, on which in charge of Kurara police station reached the spot along with the police force.
Fire tenders were requisitioned from the district headquarters to douse the fire. Late at night, DM and SP reached the spot.
Police have started an investigation by taking possession of the bodies of the woman and her two children who were completely burnt by the fire from inside the room.
The SP said that the fire broke out due to the short-circuit of the heater, in which the woman and her two daughters died.
As per CO Sadar Rajesh Kawal, preliminary investigations reveal that the trio were sleeping on the bed while keeping the hot plate beneath their bed. It is being presumed that either the bed sheet caught fire due to short circuit or while coming in contact with the heater which resulted in the fire. The husband of the woman works in Delhi. At the time of the incident the brother of the woman was also in the house who had come to take them to their parental home.
The Kurara police station in-charge said that the door of the room was locked from outside, besides her brother-in-law was found to be missing from the house.
“A heater has been recovered from the room. The fire broke out due to the short circuit in the heater, in which all three died. Search is also being done for the missing brother-in-law of Anita, who as per the family members was also present in the house,” said the in-charge further.