A homemaker was injured in a fire that started from the kitchen of her flat in Garfa on Friday afternoon, police said.

A leak in an LPG cylinder is suspected to have triggered the blaze that charred the three-bedroom flat on the second floor of a four-storeyed building on Garfa Main Road in the Ramlal Bazar area, said officers.

The police stated that the blaze was reported around 12.30pm. Two tenders doused the flames in a couple of hours, they said.

The injured homemaker told Metro that she had been keeping unwell, suffering from a bout of cough and cold.

"I did not smell the leaking gas but heard a sound. I went to the kitchen and tried to tighten the cap. As soon as I did, I saw flames leaping at me. Before I could react, my face was scalded," said the 44-year-old woman, who lived with her husband, son and a beagle.

She rushed downstairs with her son and the dog and heard a loud thud as they ran down the stairs.

She was taken to MR Bangur Hospital and discharged after treatment later in the day, the police said.

When this newspaper visited the flat, it was completely charred. Barring some documents in the cabinet, nothing could be saved, said the woman's husband, who works in a private bank on Camac Street.

Even the buttons of the lift were burnt.

The son of the woman, a Class VIII student at a school in Rajdanga, is preparing for his exams that are set to take place from Monday. All his books were destroyed in the fire, his parents said.

The ground floor of the building has a series of shops. The shop owners ran outside at the time of the fire. As did the employees and customers of a private bank that operates on the first floor. The bank was shut for a while.