Residential complex at Baguiati gutted in blaze from electrical room heater
Telegraph | 31 December 2025
A fire, apparently started from an electrical room heater, gutted an apartment on the fifth floor of a building inside a housing complex at Baguiati early on Tuesday morning.
Two children who were inside the apartment managed to escape, but the digitally locked door refused to open, delaying the efforts of firefighters to enter the flat.
Police said the parents of the children were not a home when the fire broke out.
According to the police, around 3 am, a 16-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister were alone inside their apartment at the Parvati Vihar housing complex when they noticed the fire. They ran out of the flat in panic and pulled the door shut behind them.
“This caused the main door to lock automatically, cutting off access to the flat. Otherwise, neighbours could have entered and tried to douse the fire. Our team, along with fire tenders, reached the spot shortly after,” said a senior officer of Baguiati police station.
The firemen initially broke the window panes and later forced open the door to gain entry and douse the flames.
Eyewitnesses said they saw thick fumes coming out of the apartment on the fifth floor.
“Flames were leaping out of the window, and fumes were coming out of the building. We were scared that the flames would spread across other apartments in the housing,” said a resident of the housing complex.
Fire department officials said by the time they could enter the apartment, the entire house was gutted.
“Based on the statement of the children, it appeared that an electrical room heater caused the fire. It could be an electrical short circuit. The exact cause of the blaze would be ascertained only after the forensic examination of the spot is done,” said an official of the state fire and emergency services department.
Several incidents of fire have been reported in the past, especially during winter when people use heating devices and keep their windows closed to keep out the cold.
“If all the windows are closed, in case of a fire, or a gas leakage, the smoke or the gas gets trapped inside the house as there is no way out,” said a senior police officer.
There have been instances where a half-lit cigarette butt had ignited a fire, generating odourless carbon monoxide that could kill people in their sleep.
“People go to sleep with their laptops switched on, leaving them on their bed. An electrical short circuit could cause a fire from there as well,” said the officer.
The police said forensic department officials would visit the spot after the cooling of the apartment.
Last year, an elderly woman died of burns after her quilt caught fire apparently from a room heater at her Behala home on Tuesday morning. Purnima Dey, 82, a resident of Nafar Chandra Das Road, was asleep when her quilt that fell on the heater caught fire.