10 Tongi fire victims still under treatment

Ten victims of Saturday's fire at a Tongi packaging factory are still undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Of them, five critically injured workers are getting treatment at the Casualty Department. Resident Surgeon Jasmine Nahar said that three of them – Shipon, Rokon and Jahangir – had head injuries. Four others are admitted in Ward 101. One of them – Pran Krishna Sarker – has multiple fractures. Another is undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU). Sumon Mollik, brother-in-law of Pran Krishna, said that they had received Tk10,000 from the Deputy Commissioner's office as compensation. Meanwhile, the family of Ripon Das, an injured worker of Tampaco Foils Ltd who succumbed to his injuries in the morning, received Tk20,000 as compensation from the DC office. With Ripon, at least 29 workers have died in the fire incident that originated at 6:15am Saturday. Around 50 people were injured in the fire. Soumen Barua, AIG of the Department of Labour, said that they were preparing a list of injured workers admitted to the hospital to determine the extent of injury and the amount of compensation. The injured workers would be given maximum Tk1 lakh. Director of Labour (Joint Secretary) SM Ashrafuzzaman earlier said that the families of the dead workers would get Tk2 lakh each and the injured a maximum Tk1 lakh as grants from the Labour Welfare Fund. Sources said the families of the injured workers had to buy medicine from outside the hospital Saturday. Learning about this, Director General of Health Services Dr Md Abul Kalam Azad instructed the DMCH authorities to arrange free medicine for the injured since all the necessary medicines were supposed to be available at the hospital. After Dr Azad visited the hospital Sunday, DMCH Director Brig Gen Mizanur Rahman informed him that the patients were given free medicine.