Jammu:A former DSP and his three-year-old grandson were among six people who suffocated to death when their rented accommodation caught fire in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district early on Wednesday.
Four other people who were in the house were rescued and are undergoing treatment in a hospital. The fire broke out inside a house in the Shiv Nagar area of the district, filling it with thick smoke while its occupants were sleeping.
Officials said that locals noticed the fire around 2.30 am and rushed to the house. The victims were shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kathua, where six, including two minors, were declared dead, they said.
“Ten people were brought to the hospital. Six of them were dead, and four others were unconscious,” a senior doctor at the hospital said. Preliminary investigations suggest the victims died by suffocation after inhaling the smoke, the doctor said, adding that no burn injuries were reported.
Rocky Sharma, a student, said he was studying late at night when he noticed the fire and rushed to the house along with others. "The fire had engulfed the drawing room, and the smoke that seeped into other rooms resulted in the deaths," he said.