3 siblings burn to death in hut in Barwani

BARWANI: Three brothers, aged 6 to 10 years, were killed in a fire that broke out in a thatched hut in Borkund village of Barwani district on Monday.

Their parents were busy digging a well and were around 12 feet below ground when the fire broke out, possibly from the 'chulha'. The children couldn't get out and burned to death. Nothing was left of the hut but ashes. Four goats and a bull were also killed in the fire.

Barwani SDOP Rooprekha Yadav told TOI that the parents, Rajaram and Gudi Bai, had been digging a well around 100 metres from the house for several days and had left 10-year-old Mukesh, Rakesh, 8, and Akash, 6, alone in the kutcha house. The eldest was fiddling with a mobile phone and the other two kids were playing on a makeshift swing when the fire broke out, Yadav said. The couple heard their screams, but initially thought that they were simply playing.

But when they saw smoke, they rushed home to find the kids dead, Yadav said. The fire spread from the earthen stove, fanned by the hot summer wind, and quickly engulfed the hut, the SDOP said.

District collector Rahul Haridas Fating, SP Puneet Gehlod, district panchayat president Balwant Patel and other officials rushed to the spot.