Four persons of a family died of asphyxia caused by a house fire at Pragati Tol in Pokhara on Tuesday night.

The victims were identified as Sita Phal Rana, 36, her son Simanta Rana, 10, her mother Ganga Kumari Phal, 56, and cousin Basanti Rana, 22.

 Police suspect the fire was caused by short circuit in the living room as all the switchboards were damaged.

“The flame had caught a sofa and the ensuing smoke could have suffocated the victims,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Gajusiddhi Bajracharya. “We found three of the victims in the room next to the kitchen. The body of the child was in the kitchen.”

The tenants living in the ground floor of the house called police on Wednesday morning after seeing that the windows in the apartment where the Ranas lived had turned black.

“They had shut all the windows so the smoke was trapped inside,” said Bishnu Thapa, one of the house tenants. “Police had to break in through one of the windows.” Police took the bodies to the Western Regional Hospital for autopsy.

Father, daughter die in house fire

DHADING: A father and his daughter died in a house fire at Gumdi VDC-6 in Dhading on Tuesday night. Police said Sher Bahadur Gurung, 48, and his Dhanmaya Gurung, 15, died when the house caught fire while they were asleep. Gurung’s wife managed to escape as the house was burning. The family had made a fire inside the room to keep warm which might have caught on clothes.