Four members of a family, including two children, died after a fire engulfed their home in Nalipur village under Balichandrapur police limits in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Saturday night. Police said an LPG cylinder explosion was suspected, but the exact cause of the blaze has not yet been established.
The deceased were identified as Tabasum Bibi, 42, the daughter-in-law of house owner Sk Nizamuddin; Nizamuddin’s daughter Gulafa Bibi, 27; and Gulafa’s children, two-year-old Arham and 12-year-old Roshani. Nizamuddin was not at home when the fire broke out, according to the report.
The fire reportedly began in one section of the house and spread rapidly through four connected structures—two with asbestos roofs and two thatched buildings. Furniture, brass and aluminium utensils, and other household valuables were destroyed in the blaze.
A villager, Sk Akil, said the intensity of the fire left residents unable to intervene as the house burned. Fire personnel later reached the site and brought the blaze under control.
The incident highlights the difficulty of containing a fast-moving residential fire when multiple household structures are closely connected and include combustible roofing materials. The supplied report does not establish whether the buildings had fire-safety equipment, separate cooking areas or other protective measures.
Police recovered the charred bodies from the site and sent them to the district headquarters hospital in Jajpur for autopsy. The bodies’ identities were reported by police and local residents, while the post-mortem examination is expected to establish the medical details of the deaths.
Dilip Mohanty, inspector-in-charge of Balichandrapur police station, said the exact cause of the deaths would be known after the post-mortem reports are received. Police are also investigating whether an LPG cylinder explosion triggered the fire. No final cause has been announced.
The fire’s spread across the asbestos-roofed and thatched structures, along with the destruction of household belongings, indicates the scale of the damage faced by the family. Further official findings are expected after the autopsy reports and the police investigation are completed.
