A 50-year-old man and his two children — aged 15 and 12 — were burnt to death in a fire that gutted their shanty in Ehma Kaaji village near Kartarpur, 17 km from district headquarters Jalandhar, early Tuesday morning. A mosquito coil is being cited as the prime reason, though a probe is on.
The victims have been identified as Bhola Chaudhary, daughter Savitari (15) and son Ashish (12). They were from Bihar’s Darbhanga district, and Bhola was working as a farm labourer here.
The fire broke out around 3 am when they were sleeping in the shanty and they had not the time to come out. Station house officer (SHO) Bikram Singh said the children died on the spot while Bhola succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
He said the bodies were shifted to the civil hospital and people from the nearby houses managed to put out the fire with water. Some residents demanded compensation for Bhola’s wife.