‘Mysterious fire’ breaks out at a home in Odisha’s Jajpur; locals suspect black magic

The locals of Govindpur under Jajpur’s Basudevpur panchayat are in a panic mode as fire is frequently breaking out at a house under mysterious circumstances.

As per reports, the garments and furniture of Gopal Chandra Sahu’s house in Govindpur village are allegedly catching fire in the last few days without any reason. The ‘spontaneous fire’ has not only resulted in the loss of property, it has forced the locals to call a black magician to prevent such a phenomenon.

“I was out on December 12 when my family called me and said there is a fire in our house. After I came back, I saw one of my rooms is on fire. When I doused the flames in that room, another room caught fire. Even my garments and bed caught fire after that. Not only that, a wet towel kept in a bucket also too caught fire. When I climbed up to the roof, I saw my brother’s garments hung for drying were on fire too,” said the house owner Gopal Chandra Sahu.

“We first thought the fire came from the haystack stocked on the roof after somebody unknowingly lighted it. But after watching strange incidents of fire, I am sure some black magic is involved in this,” said his neighbour Sankarshan Sahu.

While the locals are spending sleepless nights fearing 'supernatural activities' in their village, the actual reason for the mysterious fire is yet to be ascertained.

It is pertinent to mention here that fire is a chemical process in which a fuel and an oxidizing agent react, yielding carbon dioxide and water.

Fires start when a flammable or combustible material, in combination with a sufficient quantity of an oxidizer such as oxygen gas or another oxygen-rich compound (though non-oxygen oxidizers exist), is exposed to a source of heat or ambient temperature above the flash point for the fuel/oxidizer mix.