An earthen lamp left lit overnight triggered a massive blaze inside a three-storey house in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district early Monday, killing six members of a family, including a two-month-old infant.
The ground floor of the three-storey house served as a crockery shop. The fire started in the upper floors where the family lived. Soni’s neighbours tried to fight the flames using water buckets before firefighters arrived.
The fire in Katni’s Barhi town killed six people across three generations, including 77-year-old Puran Agrawal, his wife Chandrakala, daughter-in-law Poonam, and granddaughters Arya (14), Anvi (6), and the infant.
“Preliminary investigation and survivors informed that a fire started from an earthen lamp kept near a coffee machine and later spread quickly through the house,” Katni superintendent of police (SP) Abhinav Vishwakarma said. Chhapara sub-divisional police officer Apoorv Bhalavi said it took firefighters several hours to bring the fire under control. Police said the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Four residents were rescued. A second fire broke out in a gold trader’s house in Seoni district 250km away, killing six members of his family, bringing the overnight death toll across the two districts to 12. At 4:30 am, a second fire broke out in the three-storey home of a gold merchant, Kundan Lal Soni, in Chhapara town in Seoni district. Six of the 10 family members inside died, including the 75-year-old gold trader, his wife, two daughters-in-law, a relative, and a 16-year-old grandson.
“Everyone present, especially the local residents and the youth, made significant efforts to contain the blaze. Once the fire was partially brought under control, walls were broken through to rescue those trapped inside. “Another fire tender from Vijayraghavgarh arrived an hour and a half later, but it too had a faulty hose.
By 5:00 am, the SDRF team also arrived with their full contingent,” he said. Because the crockery materials stored on the lower floor were highly flammable, unfortunately, the fire could not be brought under control, partly.
Fire tenders were later called from Kaimore and Katni, and the firefighting and rescue operation continued till morning with the help of local youths,” said a relative.
