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Five-year-old boy burnt alive in Kharar village fire
Gas stove in a shanty may have caused the fire, say fire officials; 43 migrant families left roofless; Punjab chief minister gives Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia relief to family of deceased; affected families moved to local school building.
A five-year-old boy was burnt alive after a massive fire broke out in the slums at Teur village in Punjab’s Kharar town on Tuesday.
As many as 43 families were left roofless as their shanties were destroyed in the fire that broke out around 3.30pm. All their household articles were ravaged.
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced Rs 2 lakh as ex-gratia relief for the family of the deceased, apart from ordering the district administration to assess the losses of the families and provide them relief.
“A boy named Aditya, aged five, sustained 100% burns and died. A woman also sustained burn injuries. The civil and police officials immediately reached the spot, and two fire tenders were deployed to douse the flames,” said deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan.
Kharar fire station officer Mohan Lal Verma said though the fire broke out at 3.30pm, they received an alert at 4.15pm, and by the time, the fire brigade reached the spot, everything was gutted.
He said the reason behind the fire was yet to be ascertained, but could have been caused by a gas stove in one of the shanties.
Verma said most of the occupants of the shanties were away at work and only three to four women were present there.
As the fire broke out, the women rushed out to safety, but the five-year-old boy ran back inside and was burnt alive. The injured woman was rushed to the Kharar civil hospital, he said.
“I have lost everything in the fire, including all my household articles. Most of the families staying here work in farmers’ fields. We don’t know what to do now,” said Hamraj Kumar, a migrant.
Kharar sub-divisional magistrate Himanshu Jain, who reached the spot, said the boy was cremated and all families were temporarily shifted to a local government school where they were being provided food.Five-year-old boy burnt alive in Kharar village fire
