Staff Reporter  

An elderly couple was burnt alive in the house they were living in on December 29 at Tsertsa under Trong gewog in Zhemgang. The couple is suspected to have fallen asleep while the fire broke out.

The man was 73 and the woman was 81 years old.




The daughter of the deceased who lives in Trong   village above Zhemgang town said that her parents were living with her sister at Tsertsa. The sister was away when the incident happened.

Tsertsa is 50 kilometers from Zhemgang town, on the way to Panbang.

The daughter said that the house was not electrified and there was firewood stacked beneath the floor of the one-storeyed semi-permanent house. There was no houses close to their house.




She said one of the neighbours saw the fire when he stepped out of his home to go to the toilet. The neighbours rushed to the place and tried to extinguish the fire but failed.

“When I got to the site around 8:30pm, everything was finished,” the daughter said.

The fire is suspected to have started at around 7pm while the cause is unknown.