The incident occurred when Kumari Parvati, the victim, decided to dry the wet clothes piled up in her house after her mother Ambavva and father Basavaraj Lingayat went out to buy groceries.

She hung the wet clothes from an iron pole in the house, and ``must have tried to switch on the table fan, leading to the mishap,'' Ambernath police officials, who visited the Lingayats' Navin Bhendipada home, said.

The old wire of the fan was worn out, and the insulation damaged in many places. ``Moreover, it was going over the iron pole,'' police added. When Parvati put on the switch, it led to a short circuit. Alarmed to see the wiring crackling in the fire as the flames threatened to grow, she inadvertently touched the pole on which the clothes were hanging and suffered severe burns.

By the time anxious neighbours could rush to help her, she had suffered 65 per cent burns and died onthe spot. Her parents, who were informed by a neighbour, rushed home to find their daughter had already breathed her last.

``She wanted pink ribbons, so I promised her to get them,'' her mother said, showing this reporter the ribbons, and asked: ``Now how will I help her do her braids with these ribbons?''

The chairperson of the Ambernath Municipal Council, Poornima Kabre, has expressed sorrow over the incident. She said ``the slumdwellers never pay attention to safety and are more interested in getting a power connection anyhow'' and cast the blame for the girl's death on her parents and the ``congestion in slums.''