Fire kills 6 kids in a family

VIVEK CHHETRI
Darjeeling, April 27: Six children, siblings aged between 2 and 12, were burnt to death when a fire broke out in their home in a remote Mirik village last night.

The children were probably asleep at the time when the fire is suspected to have started in the kitchen of their two-room house whose main door was bolted from outside.

The sparsely populated Lower Zimba Gaon was unaware of the blaze till the electricity meter burst and woke up the nearest neighbour whose house is a five-minute walk from the home of Arjun and Shova Tamang, who lost their children.

“Six children were charred to death in the fire that broke out last night at Lower Zimba Gaon. We suspect the fire started from the kitchen,” said S. Chaki, the officer in charge of Mirik police station. Two of the children — Asit, 12, Sneha, 10, Kabir, 9, Sachin, 8, Baichung, 7 and Neha, 2 — were girls.

M.K. Tamang, the vice-chairman of the Mirik municipality who visited the spot today, said the children were alone as Arjun, a carpenter, had not returned home from work and his wife Shova had gone to another village to get medicine. “She was unwell and seemed to have gone to another village, Thapa Gaon, leaving the children at home. It was during this time that the house caught fire.”

Thapa Gaon is a 15-20 minutes walk from Arjun’s house. “At a distance of five-minute walk, there is this house of Kharkalal Tamang, who is a relative of the family. He, however, came to know of the fire only when the electricity meter burst. On hearing the sound he came out of the house. By then the blaze was unstoppable,” said Tamang.

The parents came back to find their home reduced to almost ashes, the civic chairman said. News of the fire reached the civic authorities this morning.

“The area is very remote. One can travel in a vehicle for half an hour till Bhar Peepal from Mirik after which one has to walk on foot for almost one-and-a-half hours,” said Tamang. The village is on the banks of Ranghbhang khola, about 10km from Mirik.

Both Arjun and Shova are in a state of shock but neighbours said the main door was bolted from the outside and the children were fast asleep.

“In villages, people go to sleep by 7-8pm. Since there were no neighbours in the vicinity, we learnt that the wife had bolted the only door of the house from outside. The children who were asleep probably could not jump out of the window,” said Tamang.

Mirik police have sent the bodies to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri for post-mortem.(TT)