An elderly person was charred to death after a cooking gas cylinder exploded when a short-circuit triggered a fire at a home in North 24-Parganas early on Wednesday morning.

Police and local sources said three persons were trapped in the house that was gutted in the blaze at Bhawanipur-Muktarchak village. While one of them was charred to death, the two others suffered critical burns.

The police recovered the charred body of Sudip Gharami, 55, and rescued the two injured residents with the support of the neighbours. The injured persons are undergoing treatment at Basirhat district hospital. Hospital sources said their condition was critical.

Conducting rescue operations became a challenge as the house was located on an island on the Dasa river, which is a distributory of the Ichhamati. The location of the house made it inaccessible for the fire brigade and it took neighbours more than an hour to douse the fire.

After a preliminary investigation, police claimed the fire was a result of a short-circuit.

“When we first saw the fire, we tried to wake up the residents from their sleep. But the effort went in vain and when they tried to escape the blast made the situation worse,” said a neighbour.