Seven members of a family, including two children, were charred to death in a fire at a cloth store in Paratwada town near here in the wee hours today.
The blaze erupted at the Vrindavan cloth store, run by three Gotwal brothers, on Shriniwas road at Tilak chowk in Paratwada about 50 kms from here, at around 3.10 AM when the victims were asleep in their home above the shop, police said.
The fire, apparently caused due to a short circuit, later spread to the house, killing seven persons.
As some neighbours noticed the fire, they rushed to douse it and managed to rescue three family members.
An MSEB employee snapped the power supply in the area, enabling fire brigade officials to douse the flames. However, by the time the fire was extinguished, seven people succumbed to their burns.
The bodies were taken to sub-district hospital where the postmortem was conducted in the morning.
The deceased were identified as - Prerna Anand Gotwal (25), Sheetal Arvind Gotwal (28), Ravi Gotwal (30), Vimala Ramesh Gotwal (60), Poonam Gotwal (30) and two children - Ved Anand Gotwal (4) and Vedika Anand Gotwal (6 months).
The three brothers, who ran the shop sustained injuries in the mishap and were admitted to hospital, police added.
