Lone survivor Mahbubul is devastated and haunted by the images of all his family members who died in the Sunday night fire.
All his dreams and hopes are shattered and he keeps recalling the Eid shopping spree he had planned to go on yesterday with his four kids.
“I had planned to go Eid shopping yesterday since my wife wanted to buy a saree and our children wanted their new dresses. I used to work beyond the usual trading hours at night just to earn some extra money,” recounted vegetable trader Mahbubul.
He lost his wife and four children in the fire incident in his house at Chittagong district’s Hathazari upazila on Sunday night.
“I was supposed to dine with my family after Tarabi prayer. But as soon as I heard the news of the fire, I ran toward my residence where I found only ashes and burnt skeletons of all my family members,” he recalls sadly.
After seeing the bodies, Mahbubul began to experience fainting episodes from Sunday night and physicians suggested that he take bed rest. This was the most traumatic event in his life, said Mahbubul’s brother Mohammad Azam.
As soon as he regained consciousness, he started crying relentlessly and hitting himself on the chest, said Azam.
“My daughter Rina and Sima studied at a madrasa and my wife and I had planned to get Jhuma and Maruf admitted to a school next year, but all my dreams were dashed,” Mahbubul said, adding disconsolately, “I wished I had been burnt along with them.”
The ill-fated soul wed his wife Rosi in 2001 and their financial condition had not been good, Azam said, adding that recently his brother had been making a good profit in his business.
On Sunday around 8:30pm, a fire originating from an electric shot circuit gutted Mahbubul’s newly made tin-shed house in Kumarikul area under Sarkarhat union of the upazila.
His wife Rosi Aktar, 35, and four children Rina Aktar, 12, Sima Aktar, 10, Jhuma Aktar, 7, and son Maruf, 5, were burnt to death, said fire brigade sources.
The firemen, however, managed to douse the fire within one hour, but recovered only the burnt skeletons of the five, said Jasim Uddin, deputy assistant director of the Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence unit.
The bodies were buried in the area early yesterday, after completing the necessary formalities, said Mohammad Ismail, officer-in-charge of Hathazari police station.