Five people, including four from a family, lost their lives after their house caught fire leading to an LPG cylinder blast in Dibrugarh in Upper Assam on Saturday, police said.
“Last night, at around 1am there was an LPG cylinder blast. Three houses were burnt and suffered damages because of it. Five persons who were sleeping in the house, where the blast happened, died,” Dibrugarh’s superintendent of police, Gautam Borah, said.
The blast took place at the house of Krishna Sunar in the Thermal Railway Gate locality. Officials said Sunar was away when the incident happened.
Those killed were his 50-year-old wife Maya Sunar, younger son Vishal Sunar, two grandsons, including three-year-old Sankar Sunar and five-year-old-Sibu Sunar, and 50-year-old Nunu, who worked as a house help.
Dhrubajyoti Borah, the additional superintendent of police of the district, said their initial investigations pointed out that a candle may have caused the fire in the small bamboo house.
“It appears that the LPG cylinder blast happened subsequently because of the fire,” said Borah.
A senior official of the Assam Fire and Emergency Services in Guwahati said as many as three fire tenders were rushed to the spot immediately after the incident and doused the blaze in a short time.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal expressed “deepest condolences” and directed the district administration to conduct an inquiry and release an ex gratia amount of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of the victims, according to his office.
