Katni and Seoni fires: 12 dead in Madhya Pradesh on Diwali night

Twelve people died in two separate house fires in Madhya Pradesh in the early hours of Monday (9 November), after Diwali night. Six members of one family were killed in a blaze at a three-storey building in Barhi town, Katni district, and six more died in a fire at a gold trader’s house in Chhapara town, Seoni district, about 250 km away, Hindustan Times reported, citing police and officials.

The Katni fire was reported at around 12:30 am. The ground floor of the building housed a shop that Collector Ashish Tiwari described as a crockery shop; the Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), Virendra Narve, described it as a plastic-goods shop. The family lived on the floors above. Six people died: Puran Agrawal, 77, who ran the shop, his wife, his daughter-in-law, two of his granddaughters, aged 14 and six, and a two-month-old infant. Only two people in the house escaped, the collector said.

Katni Superintendent of Police Abhinav Vishwakarma said survivors and the preliminary investigation pointed to an earthen lamp, or diya, kept near a coffee machine as the start of the fire. “Preliminary investigation and survivors informed that a fire started from an earthen lamp kept near a coffee machine and later spread quickly through the house,” he said. SDOP Narve said the exact cause was not yet established and would become clear after an investigation, adding that a diya or a short circuit was being speculated about.

Collector Tiwari told ANI that the fire brigade reached the spot by 12:45 am, more fire tenders were called in around 1:30 am, and the State Disaster Response Force arrived by about 5 am. “Unfortunately, the fire could not be brought under control, partly because the crockery materials stored on the lower floor were highly flammable,” he said. He added that the administration would provide full support, including financial assistance.

Relatives of the victims alleged that the first fire engine, from the Barhi municipal council, arrived an hour late and could not start work because its hose was damaged. “Another fire tender from Vijayraghavgarh arrived an hour and a half later, but it too had a faulty hose,” a relative said, Hindustan Times reported. Tenders were later brought from Kaimore and Katni. These are the relatives’ allegations; the district administration’s timeline differs, and neither has been independently verified.

The second fire broke out at about 4:30 am in the three-storey home of gold trader Kundan Lal Soni near a Jain temple in Chhapara, Seoni. Ten people were in the house, and four were rescued. Police said six people died of smoke inhalation and burns: Soni, 75, his wife Rajkumari Soni, 65, his daughters-in-law Ritu Soni, 42, and Smriti Soni, 40, a relative, Surya Soni, 45, and a 16-year-old grandson. Chhapara SDOP Apoorv Bhalavi said it took firefighters several hours to bring the blaze under control, and that neighbours tried to fight the flames with buckets of water before the fire brigade arrived. Police said the cause is yet to be determined.