A 52-year-old woman was burnt to death due to a fire caused from an electrical short-circuit in Naik Nagar in the city in the early hours of September 4, while three other family members were admitted for treatment in Government General Hospital.
Over-night rainfall caused water seepage in the walls of the old house that the family was living in, resulting in the electrical short-circuit. Mining engineer Chandrasekhar Reddy, his children Lasya, 10, and Charandeep, 12, and mother Lakshmi Devi were staying in the house at the time of the incident. The refrigerator went up in flames, filling the entire house in smoke and melting kitchen utensils and the pressure cooker.
According to II Town Circle Inspector S. Jakir Hussain Khan, who arrived at the spot at 3.30 a.m., while Chandrasekhar had managed to come out of the house along with his two children sleeping in the bedroom, his mother’s body was found burnt close to the window near the refrigerator. She was sleeping in the drawing-room.
Chandrasekhar’s wife, Sunitha, was at her parents’ house in Kundurpi, in the district, since the couple’s fight about 15 days ago.
The Circle Inspector immediately called for an electrician to disconnect power connection to the house and informed the Fire Department personnel, who doused the fire. Blue Colt and Beat police, who were on routine rounds in the area, got information from the ambulance staff who Chandrasekhar had called for coming out of the house.
The three members of the family members are being treated for breathing difficulty and are out of danger.
