8-year-old killed in fire at Kokaley

DIKCHU, 10 Dec: An eight-year-old boy was killed in an unfortunate mishap here at Lower Kokaley village under Pathuk-Singbel GPU of Tumin Lingee constituency of East Sikkim this afternoon. The child, Prakash Chettri, was caught in a ferocious blaze when the storeroom in which hay had been stacked caught fire at around 1:30 p.m. today.
The store, part of the wooden house belonging to the victim’s father, Dhalanath Chettri, has also been reduced to ashes.
Sources inform that the child was alone at home at the time of the mishap, the rest of the family away in the fields at the time. Initial police investigation into the incident suggests that the victim could have been playing with matchsticks in the store room stacked with hay and accidentally started the fire. The case remains under investigation.
The hay stack blazes fast and hot and the victim was caught in it. Children playing nearby noticed the fire first it is informed and heard the screams of the child, but by the time help arrived, the blaze was already an inferno beyond control. The villagers who rushed to the spot could only access the lower floor where cattle was tied and managed to release them. It was however already too late for eight year old Prakash who perished in the fire.
BDO Tintek, Tenzing Dorjee Denjongpa, rushed to the spot along with zilla member Hem Raj Adhikari, ward panchayat Krishna Regmi and Panchayat secretary Prem Adhikari on hearing of the incident. Police personnel from Makha Check Post also arrived at the spot after which the dead body was sent for autopsy to the District Hospital at Singtam.
The BDO Tintek in conversation with NOW! informed that he has submitted a report on the incident to the SDM Gangtok and that ex-gratia will be released soon to the bereaved family.
The child was studying in Mangan.