6 of family go to sleep, suffocate due to smoke after fridge, TV catch fire

Five children and their 40-year-old aunt were asphyxiated following a short circuit in their house at Uttaranchal Vihar Colony in Ghaziabad’s Loni town late on Sunday night. Police said the children, aged between 5 and 12 years, were sleeping with their aunt since others in the family had gone to Meerut to attend a wedding.

Parveen, 40, and five children including two boys died in their sleep.

The cops suspect the incident took place some time after the six went to sleep after shutting the room to keep out the cold.

“Late at night, there was probably a short circuit in which the refrigerator and television caught fire. All the victims were asleep. There was gaseous formation in the room as a result of slow-burning activity and the victims died. Their bodies also had burn minor injuries,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, superintendent of police of Ghaziabad (rural).

“Most of the family members had gone to their native place at Jani in Meerut to attend a wedding. The five children were sleeping with their aunt on the ground floor of the three-storeyed house. We are conducting the legal formalities and a post mortem examination will be conducted to know the exact cause of death. Prima facie, it seems a case of asphyxia due to thick smoke which resulted after the gadgets caught fire,” Jadaun added.

The building is occupied by five brothers and their families.

According to their neighbours, they came to know about the accident when the children did not get up for school.

“Generally I take all children along with my kids to take them to school. I did not see any activity in their house on Monday morning so I went there to wake them up for school. There was no response from inside. Sensing foul play, the door was broken and the six were found dead inside,” said Mohammad Sajid, neighbour of the victims.