The house that caught fire. Picture by Vivek Singh

Kurseong, March 18: One person was charred to death when his house caught fire at Aringale near Dilaram, 8km from here, today. The fire that has snuffed out the life of Bhim Bahadur Chettri (60) destroyed the first floor of the double-storied house — located by the NH55 — around 2pm.

Chettri, who apparently fell asleep while watching television, could not have detected the blaze in time. Moreover, the house was made of wood, helping the fire spread fast.

The body was taken out of the charred house by Kurseong fire brigade officials and sent to Kurseong Subdivisional Hospital for post-mortem.

“By the time the neighbours came to know about the fire, my father was already dead. It seems that he fell asleep while watching television and knew little of the fire,” said Punam Chettri.

Punam, who was in Siliguri for work, reached the spot soon after the mishap.

Since the fire destroyed the wooden house so fast, no one could save anything. “As we were not there and my sister-in-law had gone with her child to a shop, 1km away, only a bed could be taken out,” said Punam.

The other members of family were also not at home.

Punam said they would stay in the neighbour’s house for the time being.

The fire officials reached the spot as soon as they received the information and doused the blaze. “Since we reached the spot in time, we could prevent the fire from spreading to other houses nearby,” said D. Lepcha, the officer in-charge of Kurseong.

Lepcha said they could not find the cause of the fire.

Chettri was a retired employee of the West Bengal State Electricity Board