An elderly woman who lived alone was found charred on her bed at her Garfa home on Thursday evening.

Police suspect the fire that engulfed the bed on which 74-year-old Tapati Sarkar was sleeping was caused by overheating of a heat-pad that she had wrapped around one of her legs and dozed off without turning it off.

Cops said they were waiting for the forensic opinion before concluding the exact cause of the fire.

Residents of an apartment at Eastern Park found smoke billowing out of a second-floor flat, whose main door was slightly open, police said. On entering the flat, they found a charred Sarkar lying on a bed that was still engulfed in flames.

“The victim had been living alone in the apartment since her husband had passed away in 2019. Her only daughter lives with her husband on Cornfield Road. According to their statement, the elderly woman was always advised never to lock her main door so that next-door neighbours could enter the flat in case of an emergency,” said an officer of Garfa police station.

Sources in the forensic team that visited the spot said they found a heat-pad wrapped around her leg with its wire exposed because of the fire.

“Preliminarily it appears overheating of the heat-pad caused the fire. There is a possibility that the elderly lady had fallen asleep with the heat-pad switched on and carbon monoxide from the burned wire could have caused her death before the fire engulfed the bed and charred her body,” a forensic department official said.

The final report, he said, could be prepared only after conducting an autopsy of the body.

An unnatural death case has been registered with Garfa police station.

The police said no foul play could be detected till Friday.

Sarkar’s daughter and son-in-law told the police that they had tried to contact her over the phone on Thursday several times but the phone kept ringing.

A domestic help who works in the flat adjoining Sarkar’s had seen the door slightly open and spotted smoke coming out when she alerted other neighbours, the police said. Neighbours tried to douse the fire with extinguishers and water but by then, the woman had been charred to death.

She was taken to SSKM Hospital, where she was declared dead.

This was the seventh reported case in the city over the past five months of an elderly woman dying of burns suffered at home. The other victims suffered burns while cooking, offering prayers or lighting a cigarette.

Police and fire department officers said it was always advisable to switch off electronic gadgets while sleeping or after working.

There have been instances where people working with laptops on bed have dozed off with the gadget still on and an overheated cable triggered a fire in the room.

There were also reports of a half-lit cigarette butt causing fire in a mattress that killed occupants of the room.