Four of a family including two minor girls were charred to death in a fire that broke out in a thatched house at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in E. Pudur area in Tiruchi in the early hours on Wednesday.
The raging blaze not only gutted the house but also a cattle-shed adjacent to it claiming the life of a cow. The City Police have launched a probe into the fire accident to ascertain the cause.
The deceased were identified as T. Murugan (40), a labourer involved in pandal making, his wife M. Chitra (35) and daughters Kavya Priya (7) and Devi Priya (3).
Locals said the fire broke out at around 3.45 a.m. when Murugan’s family was asleep inside the small tenement situated along the banks of the Koraiyar.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire rapidly spread engulfing the thatched tenement completely and the adjacent cowshed. The four members were trapped amid the raging flames, thick smoke and intense heat which destroyed all articles kept inside.
Unable to escape through the lone entrance and exit of the house, Murugan and his family were charred to death.
Locals said the blaze went up to nearly 15 feet engulfing the cow shed and a thatched portion of a house atop an adjoining concrete residence. Electric wires from the pole also got burnt in the melee.
"The intense heat and thick smoke that emanated in the early hours woke me and my family and we immediately rushed out taking the stairs," said Mr. Shanmugam whose thatched house situated on the terrace of the adjacent concrete structure got destroyed in the blaze.
On being alerted, a team of fire fighters descended on the spot. However, Murugan and his family had died by then, fire and rescue services officials said.
It took about 30 minutes for the fire fighters to put out the flames completely. One of the cows tied inside the shed died, while the others managed to escape. The inmates used fire wood stove and did not have a domestic LPG connection, fire fighters said.
Scientific assistants were sent to the spot to ascertain the cause of the fire, police sources said. Collector Jayashree Muralidharan and the Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav inspected the spot. The E. Pudur police have registered a case.
