Six family members died after a fire broke out in their Yedshi home early Sunday. A Diwali diya likely started the blaze, which filled the building with thick smoke. MP Omraje Nimbalkar said a teenager survived. Villagers claimed the fire brigade arrived late, failing to save the victims in time.
The family lived on the building's first floor and ran a grocery shop on its ground floor.
Six members of a family were killed when a fire broke out at their home in Yedshi village in Maharashtra's Dharashiv district after midnight on Sunday. A Diwali diya is suspected to have started the fire.
Dharashiv MP Omraje Nimbalkar said a teenager from the family survived the fire.
"The family lived on the first floor and ran a grocery shop on the ground floor."
Nimbalkar said the fire seemed to have been caused by a traditional oil lamp lit for Diwali.
Officials identified the dead victims as Uttam Trimbak Karande, 75, Chandrakala Uttam Karande, 70, Govind Uttam Karande, 47, Jyoti Govind Karande, 42, Gayatri Govind Karande, 16, and Siddhi Govind Karande, 15.
Most of them died of suffocation in the thick smoke that quickly engulfed the building, villagers said. They alerted the fire brigade and made frantic efforts to extinguish the blaze.
Villagers alleged that the fire brigade arrived late. "The fire brigade arrived from Umargaon, which was at quite a distance. When it arrived, the vehicle had no fuel. And it was difficult to make out whether it was a fire brigade vehicle or a tanker. Had the fire brigade come on time, some lives could have been saved," a villager said.
According to police sources, Govind Karande owned a store named Karande Kirana & General Stores in the building.
The fire brigade brought the fire under control around 5 am on Monday. All six bodies were recovered and taken to Dharashiv Government Hospital, sources said.