Following deaths of father, mother and a daughter two other members of the family are now fighting for their lives at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital after a cigarette caused a fire at their apartment in Shafipur area of Gazipur.
Rina Rani Saha, 35, suffered 80% and her daughter Rumki Saha, 18, suffered 90% burn injuries all over their bodies. They died at DMCH around 4.00pm and 3.00am respectively on Friday.
Earlier, Rina’s husband Shuvash Saha, 50, who suffered 70% burn injury, lost his struggle for life on Tuesday.
Two other victims sons of the couple Rentu Saha, 22, and Sumon Saha, 16 suffered 50% and 25% burn injuries respectively but were yet to recover from their wounds even after four days of the incident. DMCH doctors said the condition of Rentu was still critical while Sumon was yet to start healing.
During a recent visit to the burns unit this correspondent found the patients lying motionless on their beds with no relatives around and only one attendant, a female nurse, present at the ward. Occasionally, doctors visited them.
Sumon Saha told this correspondent with tears brimming to his eyes that they had not been able to contact with their relatives. They phoned them on Friday and they were coming to hospital to attend them.
Earlier on Tuesday at around 3.00am a fire broke out at the house of the family members when house owner Shuvash got up to smoke.
He was trying to light a cigarette with his matches. There was a gas oven in the kitchen which caught fire as he failed to control his move. Soon the fire spread to other rooms and the whole house was on fire.
The victims said the gas pipeline of their house had been under repair for two days preceding the accident. The victim suspected that it had not been properly shut off by the repair workers causing the fire to spread further.
Local people rescued the severally burnt Saha family and took them to hospital.