Mosquito Repellent Sticks Ignite Fire At Home In UP, 2 Dead

Two people died in a fire ignited due to mosquito repellent sticks at their home in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Saturday night. The incident took place when the family of four were sleeping.

According to officials, the victims, Arun and Vansh, lit mosquito repellent sticks in their room at 1 am and slept. Around an hour and a half later, their father, Neeraj, woke up to a massive smoke and fire coming out of his children’s room. He rushed in to save them, but one of his children, Vansh, had already died. The other victim was burnt due to the fire. He was taken to the hospital, but the boy was declared dead, officials said.

The victims’ parents were sleeping in another room when the incident took place, officials added.

The family lived in Ghaziabad’s Prashant Vihar area.

The victims were both students – Arun was studying in Class 12, while Vansh was studying in Class 10.

According to the victims’ father, there was no electricity in the area when the incident took place as electric wires were being replaced.

“There was no electricity in the area since evening. Due to this lack of air and being troubled by mosquitoes, my children lit the mosquito repellent sticks between two bricks and kept them under the bed they slept on. They were sleeping with a blanket on…there were also some clothes on the bed,” he said.

He added that the neighbours helped them break into the room. 

“Our neighbours filled water in buckets and tried to extinguish the fire,” the victims’ father said.

The bodies of the victims have been sent for postmortem which will determine whether they died due to burns or smoke inhalation.