Paradip, Dec. 22: Four persons, all from a family, were charred to death as fire broke out in a slum on the outskirts of Paradip Port township in the early hours today.

The fire, which broke out at the Lockpada slums around 2.30am, gutted around 40 houses and rendered over 250 people homeless. Property worth Rs 50 lakh was damaged in the blaze.

“Once the fire broke out, it spread to other hutments. As the houses were either straw-thatched or had fibre cover, the fire spread fast,” additional district magistrate Ramakrushna Sahu said. “The fire engulfed one house after another in no time and devoured all that came in its way. We are lucky to have survived, but my house has been reduced to ashes,” said one of the victims Rina Mandal.

“Fire brigades from Kujang and neighbouring industrial units had rushed to the spot and controlled the fire,” Sahu said.

Those who perished in the fire were identified as Satrughna Mahapatra, 27, Reena Mahapatra, 22, and their two sons Abhimanyu, 5, and Sahadev, 3.

Daily wager Satrughna, an original inhabitant of Puri district, had settled down in the slum for a year. As they were fast asleep when the blaze started, the Mahapatras got trapped in the fire.

The badly charred skeletal were sent to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, said Jagatsinghpur SP Satyabrata Bhoi.

Preliminary investigation suggested that either electrical short-circuit or flames from mosquito repellent coils had sparked the fire.

The district administration has paid Rs 1.5 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of those killed. Families of those who have suffered in the fire were given Rs 10,000 as compensation.

Those who have lost their homes in the fire have been given temporary shelter at a market complex here.

Nearly 5,000 people live in the slum’s 500 hutments. Majority of them are migrant labourers engaged in Paradip port and industrial units located in the periphery of the port township, an official said.