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Another victim, identified only as Asma, has died from burn injuries after a house explosion in Narayanganj’s Siddhirganj Upazila, raising the death toll to seven.
Eight members of two families had been admitted to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery after sustaining burns in the Aug 23 blast. Among them, an 8-year-old child named Muntaha is still in treatment.
On Saturday, Dr Shawon Bin Rahman, a residential surgeon at the burn institute’s emergency unit, said: “Asma, 35, was admitted to the ICU with 50 percent burns. She died at 11pm on Friday.”
The fire broke out in the early hours of Aug 23 at a tin-shed house in Painaadi Purba Para after an explosion, leaving at least nine people from two adjacent houses burned. Eight of them were taken to the burn institute.
The injured were identified as Hasan, 40, his wife Salma, 32, daughters Jannat, 4, and Muntaha, 8, infant son Imam Uddin, one month, nephew Arafat, 18, niece Trisha Akhter, 17, and sister-in-law Asma, 35. Salma and Asma were sisters.
Doctors said Hasan suffered 44 percent burns, Jannat 40 percent, Muntaha 37 percent, Salma 48 percent, Imam Uddin 30 percent, Arafat 15 percent, Trisha 53 percent, and Asma 48 percent.
One day after the incident, Hasan’s 1-month-old son Imam died. On Monday, his mother-in-law Tahera Akhter passed away. On Thursday, Hasan himself died in the morning followed by his daughter Jannat at noon.
On Friday, Salma died around 12pm, Trisha at 3:30pm, and finally her sister Asma at 11pm.
Fire service officials initially suggested the blaze was triggered by a refrigerator compressor explosion caused by a short circuit, but locals claimed the main cause was gas accumulation from a leakage in the Titas pipeline.