Patna: The death toll from a charcoal brazier accident in Bihar’s Chhapra district has risen to five after Amisha, the wife of a Uttar Pradesh PCS officer, died during treatment in a Patna hospital, officials said on Sunday. Three other members of the family remain in critical condition.
Amisha, who had been admitted to Ruban Hospital in Patna three days ago, died after her condition deteriorated, with doctors citing extremely low blood pressure and uncontrolled blood sugar levels. Her death follows the deaths of her two young children, their cousin and their grandmother, who died after inhaling toxic fumes from a charcoal brazier used for warmth in a sealed room.
The incident occurred late on Friday night when several members of an extended family slept together in a closed hall with a brazier burning inside to ward off the cold. The victims included three-year-old Tejas, four-year-old Adhyay, seven-month-old Gudiya and their 70-year-old grandmother, Kamalawati Devi. The children were cremated on Saturday evening, while Kamalawati Devi’s last rites are being performed at Semaria Ghat in Chhapra.
Amisha’s husband, Vijay Kumar Singh, a district cooperative officer posted in Varanasi, had performed the last rites of his two children just two days earlier. “I was preparing to send them to school. Instead of uniforms, I carried their shrouds,” he said, breaking down after their deaths.
According to family members, the group had gathered at Kamalawati Devi’s home for the winter holidays. After dinner, a brazier fuelled with rice husks and cow dung cakes was lit to keep the room warm. The hall was shut, leaving little ventilation. As the brazier smouldered through the night, carbon monoxide built up in the air, depriving those inside of oxygen.
By morning, when the family failed to wake, neighbours forced open the door and found the room filled with smoke. Several occupants had already died, while others were unconscious. The survivors were rushed first to Chhapra Sadar Hospital and later referred to Patna, where three remain on ventilators.
Doctors said carbon monoxide, a colourless and odourless gas, can cause people to lose consciousness without warning. “It affects the brain first, inducing deep sleep before leading to suffocation,” a senior physician said.
Such incidents are reported every winter across India, particularly in poorly ventilated homes using charcoal braziers, heaters or stoves. Authorities have repeatedly warned that burning fuel in enclosed spaces can quickly become fatal without adequate airflow.
Police said they are investigating the circumstances of the incident but described it as an accidental case of carbon monoxide poisoning. The deaths of five members of one family have cast a pall over the neighbourhood, as relatives and neighbours struggle to come to terms with the scale of the loss.
