Representatives of three generations from one Russian family fell one by one in the cellar of their house. Little did they know that they had allowed a silent killer into their home.

A little girl’s young life changed forever one fateful day in 2013 at her family home in south-west Russia. Her happy household was obliterated, as one by one her unwitting family members were taken out by a freak of nature. Terrifyingly, their deaths were caused by an everyday grocery item that is considered completely harmless. However, this would not be a view shared by the young girl in question, the only soul spared that day.

Eight-year-old Maria was the youngest of the Chelsyheva family who lived in the small town of Laishevo in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. She shared a home with her university professor father Mikhail, mum Anastasia, brother Georgy and grandmother Iraida. Now just Maria remains, and family friends have become carers for the orphan as she comes to terms with her terrible loss.

In news reports of the time, Maria was described as “inconsolable” just after the event. This was totally understandable, as the dreadful tragedy which befell the family is almost unbelievable. Thanks to a simple mistake, most of the family paid the ultimate price and the surviving little girl is putting her life back together one day at a time. One by one the Chelsyheva family members took it in turns to take their leave of Maria, never to return.

The horrific chain of events began on the afternoon of August 22, 2013. The Chelsyhevas were enjoying a day at home together. For a reason that will never be understood, Maria’s 42-year-old father, Mikhail, felt compelled to go down into their basement where the family stored fuel and provisions for winter. The head of the household worked nearby as a head of department at Kazan Federal University for civil and business law. If Professor Chelsyheva had specialized in a science instead, it might have saved his life and spared his family.

Her father was the first to succumb to the terrible fate that lurked in the winter cellar. Poor Mikhail had no idea what awaited him down there as he descended the stairs. There were no visual clues that anything was amiss, but something was dreadfully wrong. As part of the Chelsyheva’s preparations for the harsh Russian winter to come, the family had laid in a massive quantity of a staple of their diet. But, alas, that innocent item had begun to rot and, in the process, the humble potato had become a deadly enemy.

Unbeknownst to the family upstairs, the toxic fumes produced by the rotting vegetables had intensified for weeks before anyone disturbed the area. Professor Chelsyheva was the first person to enter the cellar, and was immediately confronted by the now lethally poisonous gas emitted from the rotten mess.

The fumes had accumulated over time in the confined underground space and overwhelmed the professor instantly. While his close family obliviously carried on their activities just a few feet overhead, Mikhail fainted to the floor and then died. The father’s body lay in the cellar but no-one else in the house suspected a thing. But after a while, the others noticed his absence.

It was 38-year-old Anastasia Chelsyheva who started to wonder where her husband had got to, and decided to investigate. So she too took the dark cellar steps down to the basement, and unwittingly walked into the same potato gas trap as her husband. There were no warning signs to alert Anastasia to the danger waiting below. Again there was nothing to see, and there was nothing for the wife and mom to hear. Mikhail had been overcome so quickly that he hadn’t even cried out.

Once again the toxic force in the basement overpowered a member of the Chelsyheva family. The devastating effects of the rotten pile of potatoes took control and Anastasia was unable to avoid her fate. No-one will ever know if she was even aware of her husband’s presence on the cellar floor as she lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, in the house upstairs, it was the turn of Georgy, Mikhail and Anastasia’s 18-year-old son, to become anxious. What were his parents up to down there? There were no sounds coming from the basement. Neither Maria or himself could understand why their mom and dad were taking so long. Why would they not come back and let their children know what the issue was?

Finally, Georgy could not wait any longer and the young man stirred himself into action. For the third time that afternoon, a member of the Chelsyheva family went to see what was going on in the cellar. And as soon as Georgy stepped through the door, it was the third time that tragedy struck. Young Maria had no idea that her mom, dad and brother were all lying dead beneath the floorboards where she played.

Realizing that something sinister was afoot, Anastasia’s mother, 63-year-old Iraida, ran to a nearby house and pleaded with the neighbors to help the Chelsyhevas. Thankfully little Maria was not inquisitive enough to set foot on the cellar steps while she was left alone. Unfortunately for the family, on returning, her grandmother was curious enough to go down to her doom.

Before the neighbors could summon assistance, the brave old woman decided to see for herself. Down the cellar steps she went, only to suffocate on the noxious gas produced by the potatoes. Just like the other three members of her family, Granny Iraida died in the basement that day. But unlike the other three, Iraida had done something crucial that would save anyone who followed them.

Mercifully, there were to be no more potato-related deaths that afternoon. This was thanks to the fact that Iraida had left the door to the cellar open. Whether she had done so by accident or design, it allowed the poisonous gas to diffuse and disperse in the clean air.

So, thankfully, in this way her granddaughter’s life was spared. Sadly, there was something Maria wasn’t spared. In a small detail of such a harrowing tale, there was another shock to add to the horror. Maria herself had gone down to the basement, only to be confronted by the dead bodies of her nearest and dearest. It is to be hoped that somehow the little girl has managed to psychologically blank this awful scene from her memory.

Russian emergency services rushed to the scene and swiftly took control. Apparently, it was a local police investigator who attributed the cause of death to the noxious fumes from the pile of seriously rotted potatoes. The local community of Laishevo was left reeling at the nature of the town’s loss.

The deadly poison produced by potatoes is due to glycoalkaloids, toxic compounds found in the vegetable. The cooking process partly destroys these deadly chemicals and renders the potato safe. However, if the vegetable is left for a long time, or exposed to light or physical damage, the compound can magnify with devastating consequences. Some wild potatoes can contain such high levels of glycoalkaloids that they can cause immediate death.

Everyday potatoes having such a killer effect is a rare phenomenon, but – as we have seen – it can happen. Indeed, this case is not the only one in the world where a poisonous potato gas has caused serious illness or death. In 1979, some 78 London schoolboys were struck down by fumes from left-over potatoes that had been stored in their school’s cupboards over the summer vacation. Thankfully, however, all of the pupils made a full recovery.

That outcome was certainly not the case in 1952 in North Korea. Shockingly, the Korean civil war saw some of the population having to resort to eating rotten potatoes. It is reported that in one region 382 people fell ill from this practice, of these 52 were admitted to hospital. Tragically, 22 people died of heart failure in the 24 hours after eating the old potatoes.

This death count dwarfs that of the Chelsyhevas, not that that will be of any comfort to the surviving Maria. The orphan will have to learn to go on without her loving family. Nevertheless, the lesson for the rest of us is that, although rare, the dangers of potatoes left to rot are serious and life changing.