Bantala: In a freak mishap, two sisters were asphyxiated inside a room at Bantala Bazaar in Angul district after the clothes in the room caught fire from a kerosene lamp and emitted thick smoke late Wednesday night.
The deceased were identified as Bimala Gaana (45) and her younger sibling Ujjawala Gaana (40), both daughters of Dukhabandhu Gaana in the area. The incident has spread shockwaves in the area.
The matter came to the fore when neighbours noticed thick smoke emerging from the room and broke open the widows to find the siblings lying in unconscious state.
Fire personnel from Angul and a Rapid Action Team rushed to the spot and recovered the siblings by breaking open the door.
They were rushed in an ambulance to the Bantala community health centre where the doctors pronounced them dead. Police registered a case and sent the bodies for post-mortem.
Circumstantial evidence indicated that the two might have been asphyxiated after clothes hanging from the cellar caught fire from the burning kerosene lamp in the room and emitted thick smoke.
Sources said while Bimala was deserted by her husband, Ujjawala was a spinster. Both the sisters used to stay together in a single asbestos-roofed house and earned a living by working as casual labourers.
They used to sleep and cook in the same room and stored all their belongings in it which didn’t have a power connection.
The district administration heeding to the demands of the block BJD president Durga Charan Pradhan gave away Rs 20,000 to the bereaved family from the Red-Cross Funds while Rs 4000 was provided under Harishchandra Yojana for the cremation. PNN
