Kota Apartment Fire – The Tragic Loss of Child Actor Veer Sharma & His Brother

Two brothers were asleep in their family’s flat in Kota. Their father was out at a bhajan programme and their mother was working in Mumbai. Around 2 AM a fire started in the drawing room. The flames stayed in that one room. The smoke did not.

Date and place

• Date: 28 September 2025 (Sunday, early morning)
• Place: Fourth-floor flat, Deepshree Building, Transport Nagar area (Anantpura police station), Kota, Rajasthan
• Victims: Child actor Veer Sharma (8) and his elder brother Shoriya Sharma (16) (some outlets spell it Shaurya)

What happened

• Around 2 AM on Sunday, 28 September 2025, a fire broke out in the drawing room of the fourth-floor flat.
• Kota SP Tejeshwani Goutam said a short circuit is suspected. Police registered a case and were still looking into the exact cause.
• The two boys were alone at home and asleep. Their father, Jitendra Sharma, was at a bhajan event, and their mother, actor Rita Sharma, was in Mumbai.
• The flames did not spread beyond the drawing room, but the smoke did. Police said the boys most likely died of smoke inhalation.
• Neighbours saw smoke coming from the flat, broke open the door and found the children unconscious. They alerted the father and rushed the boys to hospital, where both were declared dead.
• The deaths shocked the television industry and led to many appeals for home fire safety.

What went wrong

• A suspected short circuit, which police named as the likely cause, started while everyone in the flat was asleep.
• No early warning. No report mentions a smoke alarm, and the fire was noticed only when neighbours saw smoke.
• Smoke from furniture. The drawing room was completely charred and its furniture reduced to ashes, police said. Burning sofas, curtains and foam give off thick, toxic smoke very quickly.
• No adult awake at home. With both parents away, nobody was awake to raise the alarm or lead the boys out.

What this fire teaches

• The boys did not die of burns but of toxic smoke, which is how most people die in home fires.
• No official finding says what would have saved them. But a working smoke alarm is meant for exactly this situation: it wakes sleeping people while there is still time to get out.
• The fire stayed in one room, yet the smoke spread through the flat. Smoke travels faster and further than flames.
• Most Indian homes still have no smoke alarm, and few families have ever talked through what to do in a fire at night.

How it could have been prevented

• Smoke alarms in every bedroom and in the passage outside, tested every month.
• Electrical checks of wiring, switchboards, ACs and heavy appliances by a licensed electrician, at least once a year.
• Switch off and unplug TVs, chargers and appliances that are not needed at night.
• Sleep with bedroom doors closed. UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute says a closed door can mean the difference between 1,000 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a fire, and it keeps out much of the deadly carbon monoxide. Fit a smoke alarm inside each bedroom so a closed door does not delay the warning.
• A fire blanket, such as a Life Safety Blanket, and a small extinguisher kept where adults can reach them, for putting out a small fire early.
• Furniture and curtains that are harder to ignite, where you can choose.
• A night-time fire plan that children have practised: how to wake, how to get out, and whom to call.
• Arrangements with neighbours whenever children are home without an adult at night: a neighbour who knows, and a number the children can call.

If a fire wakes you at night

1. Shout to wake everyone at once.
2. Roll out of bed and stay low; the air near the floor is cleaner.
3. Feel the door with the back of your hand before opening it. If it is hot, do not open it.
4. If the way is clear, get out, closing doors behind you, and do not stop for belongings.
5. If you cannot get out, stay in a room with a window, close the door and seal the gaps with wet towels or bedsheets.
6. Signal from the window or balcony with a phone light or bright cloth, and call 101 or 112.
7. Never hide under a bed or in a cupboard. Firefighters need to be able to find you.
8. Keep a torch by your bed.

Key facts

• Deaths: 2 (Veer and Shoriya Sharma)
• Cause: short circuit suspected by police; under investigation
• Time: around 2 AM
• Where the fire started: drawing room of a fourth-floor flat
• Cause of death: suffocation from smoke
• Firefighting: a neighbour told India Today the fire was put out with the building’s extinguishers and no fire tender was called; other reports say firefighters responded
• Damage: drawing room completely charred, furniture reduced to ashes (police)

Remembering Veer and Shoriya

• Veer played Pushkal in Sony SAB’s Shrimad Ramayan. Their mother, Rita Sharma, is also an actor. Shoriya was preparing for engineering.
• Neighbours broke open the door after seeing smoke. The family later donated both boys’ eyes to an eye bank.

What needs to change

• Home fire safety deserves the same attention as fire codes for big buildings.
• Smoke alarms should be standard in every flat, and builders should fit them in new homes.
• Housing societies and RWAs should arrange regular electrical checks of common wiring and encourage residents to check their own.
• Parents should teach children simple fire instincts: shout, stay low, get out, call.
• Fire services should run home safety awareness campaigns, especially before winter and festival seasons.

Families can check their own home against the usual weak points with our home fire safety score: twelve questions, answered on your phone.

What you can do today

• Buy and fit a smoke alarm outside the bedrooms, and press its test button.
• Book an electrician to check your wiring, switchboards and AC connections.
• Keep a fire blanket or extinguisher where adults can reach it quickly.
• Sit with your children tonight and talk through what they would do if they woke to smoke.
• Share this story with other parents.

More on Kota: see our Kota fire and emergency safety guide for emergency numbers and the local risks to know.

A spark took two young lives before sunrise. A small alarm on the ceiling might have given them the minutes they needed.