Krushnaprasad: As many as seven houses belonging to five families were gutted in a massive fire that broke out at Balinasi village under Krushnaprasad block of Puri district in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The houses belonged to Sudarshan Behera, Suman Behera, Rajkumari Behera, Binodini Behera and Anil Behera.
Properties worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes in the mishap.
According to villagers, the fire erupted at a house while the family members were asleep. Before they could do anything, the blaze engulfed the entire house. Luckily, the family members managed to escape unhurt.
Malud fire services personnel rushed to the spot to douse the flames after being informed about the incident by the locals. That said, seven houses had already been gutted by the time the rescue personnel could reach the spot.
The hands and legs of the driver of fire services team and the back and chest of another person were burnt.
Short-circuit is suspected to have led to the incident. A detailed probe into the incident is underway.
PNN