Chennai (Tamil Nadu): At least four people, including an elderly woman and her three granddaughters, died of asphyxiation after the house caught fire due to a fire triggered by a mosquito repellent machine in Tamil Nadu's Chennai, the police said on Saturday. The incident took place at 79th Second Cross Street in Mathur.
The woman identified as Santhanalakshmi, 67, and her granddaughters, Sandhya (10), Priya Lakshmi (8) and Pavithra (7) were sleeping in their house when the fire broke out. According to the police, at midnight, the electric mosquito repellent that was used to repel mosquitoes suddenly caught fire and spread to the cardboard box. Sources said that four of them died in their sleep due to suffocation.
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Udayar (40), the father of a deceased girl, who worked in a private food delivery company was admitted to KMC Hospital due to an accident while riding a bike. Hence, Selvi (32), the wife of Udayar, was staying at the hospital and taking care of her husband. On Saturday morning, when Pavithra's mother Velammal, who lives on the same street came to take her daughter Pavithra, who came to sleep with her grandmother at night. She grew suspicious when the children did not come out for a long time when she knocked on the door. Later, she looked through the window and found them dead.
On receiving the information, the Madhavaram Dairy Police reached the spot and started an investigation into the incident. The police then sent the bodies to Stanley Hospital in Chennai for post-mortem. Later, in the primary investigation conducted by the police, it was revealed that four of them died of suffocation. They had inhaled the smoke caused by the fire, the police said.
