BENGALURU: A day after that the fire tragedy at an apartment in Devarachikkanahalli that claimed the lives of an octogenarian woman and her 59-year-old daughter, experts conducted a spot mahazar and collected samples to ascertain the possible cause behind the massive fire that gutted three homes on Tuesday.
A senior police officer from Begur police station said, “Four teams, including FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory), the gas agency, Bescom, and disaster management, inspected the spot to collect samples. It will take time to reveal what caused the fire.”
The fire that occurred at Flat No. 210 on the second floor of Ashrith Aspire apartment claimed the lives of 82-year-old Lakshmi Devi and her daughter Bhagya Rekha, 59. Rekha was reportedly in the kitchen when an explosion led to the fire, while Lakshmi was on the balcony speaking on her mobile phone. But it is still not clear where and how the fire started, though suspicion is on a leak from the LPG cylinder in the kitchen.
Rekha’s husband Bheem Sen (64) is in hospital with severe burns suffered while trying to save his wife but in vain. Only later did he realise that his mother-in-law was stuck in the balcony with grills with no escape, and was charred to death in full view of the horrified public.
Spot investigation by the teams revealed that the family had lit four diyas in the pooja room in the hall and thermocol was used for interior design. Rekha and Bheem Sen’s son-in-law Sandeep N, a techie, has filed a case before the police, saying that he was speaking to Lakshmi when the fire broke out and she was crying for help. He has also pointed out that the refrigerator and an UPS in the hall could have caused the fire.
Sandeep, married to Rekha’s elder daughter, stays close by and had rushed to the house after learning about the fire. He along with the neighbors desperately tried to break the main door open to rescue the two women, though Bheem Sen, who was unable to enter the kitchen, had rushed downstairs to seek the help of security men despite severe burns. “We are probing the case from all angles. It is too early to say anything about the incident,” said an investigator.
Apart from the two dead and one injured, five others visited a private hospital for first-aid. More than 200 residents of the apartment were shifted soon after the accident. The family hails from Ballari. Bheem Sen is a retired employee of the Reserve Bank of India. The postmortem was conducted on Wednesday evening, and the bodies were handed over to the family.
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