Two girls died and a boy is battling for life with severe burns after they lighted an incendiary mixture mistaking it for fuel while trying to prepare food in Jubilee Hills here on Friday.
Teerthaveni, 7, her brother Yogi, 5, and their friend living next door, Narsamma, 13, were alone in their single-room house portions in Jawaharnagar slum after their parents went to work in the morning. Parents of the three children are from Srikakulam and labourers.
The trio was hungry and thought of preparing some snacks. Narsamma’s mother Saraswati, who works as a contract labourer in a film studio at Ameerpet, prepares food using firewood. Taking the cue, the kids made a makeshift stove in the open space of their house and put firewood.
Saraswati had brought home a tin of incendiary mixture of petrol and rubber - used in film shootings to create flames in blast scenes- from the work place once. “She would use one or two drops of the mixture which was in liquid form to light the firewood,” Jubilee Hills Inspector S. Venkat Reddy said.
But, somehow part of the sticky liquid became a lump and film industry technicians later told police that the incendiary mixture blows up if ignited when it turns solid. “Unaware of this, the kids poured a couple of drops on the firewood and lighted a matchstick leading to eruption of sudden flames resulting in serious burns to the three children,” the police said.
Teerthavani was the first to succumb to burns after being rushed to Osmania General Hospital followed by Narsamma in the evening while the condition of Yogi was critical. CLUES team and forensic experts examined the scene and told investigators that traces of petrol were found.
“Usually, there is no major flame during an explosion or a bomb blast as shown in movies. There will be ‘flash flames’ during blasts and it is not visible to the naked eye,” said a forensic scientist.
