In a harrowing incident that has shaken an entire community, the charred bodies of an elderly woman and four children—whom she was desperately trying to protect—were found tightly embraced on the first floor of a burning house. The woman, believed to be their grandmother, held the children close as flames engulfed the home in the Modi household. One of her hands still clutched a mobile phone with its flashlight on—likely used in her final moments to search for help or light the darkness.
Local first responders Mir Zahid and Mohd Azmat, who rushed in to help, were left traumatized by what they witnessed. “She must have tried to protect them from the flames,” said Zahid, visibly shaken. “They were all gone when we got there. I will never forget what I saw.”
The pair broke into the house by smashing through the wall of an adjacent building. But by the time they reached the victims, most had already succumbed to the blaze. They retrieved seven bodies in total from the house, including two more found in the same room.
Azmat added, “We placed a bedsheet over them because the sight was too painful. All of them had burn injuries. I don’t think words can ever do justice to what we saw.”
