Pokhara/Dhading, Dec 30

Six persons were killed in two fire incidents in Kaski and Dhading last night.

In Kaski, four persons of the same family died of asphyxiation after their house caught fire in Chauthe, Pokhara.

The deceased have been identified as Sita Rana, 36, her son Simanta, 12, niece Basanti Rana, 23, and her 56-year-old mother Ganga Kumari Phal.

Investigation has revealed that the incident was triggered by short-circuit.

“As all the windows of the house were closed, as it gets very cold at night, smoke from a sofa that caught fire found no outlet and choked the family members sleeping in the adjacent room,” said DSP Gujusiddhi Bajracharya.

Sita’s family had bought a house in Chauthe about a year ago and had since been living there. Her husband is working in Israel for the past two years.

The tragic incident came to light after the tenant of the two-storey house saw the smoke-filled rooms through a window this morning and called the police.

The police found the boy lying on the floor near the door while others were lying on the bed itself.

The sofa that caught fire was completely burnt with the smoke filling every inch of the flat on the upper storey of the house.

The bodies have been sent to Western Regional Hospital of Pokhara for post-mortem.

The incident comes just four days after a woman and her seven-month-old infant died due to asphyxiation in Mathillo Gagangauta in Kaski’s Lekhnath municipality.

In Dhading, a man and her daughter were killed in a incident in Kakawada, Gumdi. Forty-eight-year-old Sher Bahadur Gurung and his 15-year-old daughter Dhanamaya were killed after the bonfire they lighted to ward off the cold engulfed their house.

“The fire was on and they went to bed. The house was gutted and their badly burnt bodies were found in the morning,” police said. Sher Bahadur’s wife, however, managed to escape.