Woman, newborn narrowly escape as house catches fire after TV explosion in Odisha’s Kandhamal

Daringbadi: A woman and her newborn child narrowly escaped unhurt after their house caught fire following explosion of TV set due to short circuit at Pangalmaha village under Daringbadi police limits of Odisha’s Kandhamal district yesterday.

According to reports, one Manas Digal’s wife Mary and her 12-month-old child had narrow escape as fire broke out in their house soon after their TV set went off following a short circuit. However, property worth lakhs of rupees were gutted due to the inferno which completely damaged the asbestos house of Manas. Cash to the tune of 40,000 also reportedly got burnt in the fire.

The incident took place while Mary was thatching a program on the TV with some children of the village and Manas had gone for fishing along with his father.

Sources said that Mary switched-off all the lights, fan and the TV set after noticing some smoke emitting from the TV. However, as the smoke did not stop she ran out of the house along with the children and alerted the villagers.

Before anyone could reach her house, the TV set exploded and caught fire. It gradually spread to the entire house and reduced all the property to ashes.

The villagers claimed that the short circuit took place due to high voltage.

On being informed by the locals, two teams of fire tenders rushed to the village and doused the fire.

Meanwhile, the local administration is assessing the damage occurred due to the fire so that compensation could be given to Manas, said source.