Overview
- Rescuers recovered three bodies, including 8-year-old Priyansh from Bihar, after a pre-dawn blaze gutted a mixed-use mud-and-wood building near the old bus stand in Arki on January 12.
- Six to seven Nepalese-origin residents remain untraced as NDRF personnel and a dog squad joined SDRF, police, Home Guards and fire services to continue recovery operations.
- Officials said the fire began in a wooden structure housing shops below and migrant families above and spread rapidly, with locals reporting multiple LPG cylinder blasts.
- Investigators collected DNA samples from relatives to match against charred and fragmented remains sent to the forensic laboratory for identification.
- Police registered a case under Section 287 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the district administration ordered a formal inquiry and announced immediate relief for affected families.