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Four children from the Chen family in a village in Qiaojia county, southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, died in carbon monoxide poisoning when they tried to get warm by burning wood on Sunday.
This tragedy happened as the parents left to see their older children in Kunming on Friday, the capital of Yunnan Province.
Since there was no one else in the family to look after the four teens, the parents had to leave them on their own. Despite the oldest being barely 11 years old and the smallest only 4.
According to the children’s uncle Lu Yucong, the family used to light a fire in their kitchen with wood during this season and keep it from the bedroom. However, they left in a hurry without urging the boys to give special attention to the safety of heating.
As temperatures have dropped in that area, it is thought that they might have tried to warm up by keeping the fire in the enclosed bedroom.
On Monday morning, noticing that all four children were absent from class, a teacher from the school called their parents. Chen Bencai, father of the children, called his neighbors to go to his house and check on the children, only to find it was too late to rescue.
“When the boys are found, the fire basket was in their bedroom, with the windows and doors shut closely,” said Lu.
According to Lu, it was a big shock to the parents. “When they rushed home and saw their children’s corpse, they could hardly stand still.”
“Life is not easy for the Chen family. They earn a living from their land by growing corns, with some part-time job to support the family,” said Lu.
Relatives and neighbors came to help the family make coffins with boards.
Seeing that the family did not have money for the funeral, relatives and neighbors came to help. They used spare board left from building houses to make the coffins.
Local government has given a pension of 40,000 yuan for the family on Wednesday, Lu said.
(CGTN)
