Death toll in Jatrabari blast reaches three as another victim succumbs to injuries


FE ONLINE DESK | Published: April 26, 2022 12:40:58 | Updated: April 26, 2022 16:43:57


Death toll in Jatrabari blast reaches three as another victim succumbs to injuries

Two-year-old Fatema was not aware that she had lost both of her parents to the fire that blazed through their home. Now, she, too, has succumbed to her burn injuries.

The death brings the toll from the Jatrabari fire to three.

Fatema breathed her last at 7:00am on Tuesday while receiving treatment at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said her uncle Kamal Hossain, reports bdnews24.com.

Her parents, Abdul Karim, 30, and Khadiza Akter, 25, died in the same hospital on Monday. They were laid to rest in their ancestral home in Pabna’s Sujanagar.

 “We’ll take Fatema to Pabna today for her burial. She’ll be buried next to her parents,” Kamal Hossain said.

A grocer by profession, Karim lived with his family in a rented house in Matuail. On April 21, the family had woken to have sehri when the fire broke out. Neighbours took the three to the hospital.

Khadiza had burns on 95 per cent of her body, while Karim had burns on 54 per cent of his. Their daughter had burns on 35 per cent of her body.

Initially, it was believed the blaze was ignited by the explosion of a refrigerator’s compressor, but later, police and Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company said the blast was caused by gas accumulated inside the kitchen.

The house had a Titas Gas connection as well as an LPG gas cylinder, said Sabiul Awal, manager of Dhaka Metro South wing of Titas Gas.

“They used both. It could be the Titas gas pipeline or the cylinder that caused the blast. But no fault was found in the gas pipeline.”

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