On Sunday, a family of four from Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district died in a fire accident. The incident took place in Chittoor’s Rajula Kandriga town, in the early hours of Sunday.
Police suspect that a gas leakage from the geyser in the bathroom led to a fire. The deceased have been identified as L Sreenivasulu Reddy, his wife Bujjamma, and the couple’s two children, Bhavya and Nithin. The family had shifted to Rajula Kandriga a few months ago, where Sreenivasulu was working as an auto driver.
The family had been sleeping on a bed in one of the rooms at the time of the incident. Their bodies were found charred.
While police are primarily investigating the case as a fire accident caused by the gas leakage, they have not ruled out the possibility of a suicide angle in the case. Some of the locals in the vicinity speculate that the family may have been facing a number of disputes due to which they might have taken such a drastic step.
Tirupati Urban SP Anburajan is working with forensic officials to determine the cause of the accident and subsequent deaths of the four individuals.
A similar tragedy took place in Chennai in October, wherein a family of three suffocated to death after inhaling toxic gas which emitted from their air conditioner. A power cut in the area led to the family switching on the inverter to utilize the air conditioner. The inverter remained on even after the power returned when the family was asleep. This led to gas being leaked from the air conditioner’s cylinders and caused the family to be asphyxiated by the gas as there was no ventilation in the room.