A 40-year-old cloth merchant and his 35-year-old wife were charred to death in a major fire incident at their shop-cum-house at Basaveshwara Circle in the town on Monday.
K B Raghavendra and K B Shilpa died of asphyxiation in the fire that occurred due to an electrical short circuit in the early hours of the day.
It is said that the couple were sleeping in the first floor of the house, where cloth had been stored.
Raghavendra’s parents K B Ashok (70), K B Indramma (65) and the couple’s children Rushil (10) and Vedansh (8), who were all sleeping in the ground floor, survived the incident. The shop is on the ground floor.
Ashok woke up the couple in a bid to save them. But they died of asphyxiation as smoke engulfed the place. Their efforts to let in fresh air by opening the toilet window proved futile, it is said.
Superintendent of Police Dr C B Vedamurthy visited the spot. The Saidapur police have registered a case.
The fire raged for six hours before personnel from the Yadgir and Raichur fire stations brought it under control.
Efforts by local residents to rescue the couple by breaking the walls with the help of cranes and earthmovers went in vain. The residents later brought out the charred bodies of Raghavendra and Shilpa.
Residents demanded that a fire station should be set up in the town as it took over an hour for the fire tenders to arrive from outside.
Published 27 March 2023, 16:51 IST