Himachal govt school teacher dies in blaze at Hamirpur home

NEW DELHI: A 57-year-old government school teacher was charred to death in a fire in the Nadaun subdivision of this Himachal Pradesh district, police said on Thursday. Ashok Kumar died of burn injuries when his two-room slate-clad house in the Chailali village of Sanahi gram panchayat was gutted in a fire that broke out around 3.30 am on Thursday, said Nadaun police station SHO Yog Raj Chandel.

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The body has been sent for post-mortem and investigations are underway, the police said. The police believe the cause of the fire to be an electrical short circuit. Kumar slept in a room alone. His wife Sunita, who was sleeping in the adjacent room, raised an alarm when she saw the fire. The fire brigade was informed but Kumar was dead before they arrived, the police said.

Naib Tehsildar Kangu Balwant Thakur said Kumar's wife had been provided with immediate assistance of Rs 25,000. Kumar worked as a teacher at the Government Senior Secondary School Kashmir - Hamirpur. He was scheduled to retire next year. His son is currently in Singapore while his daughter is married to the son of former MLA Baldev Sharma.