Jatrabari gas fire: Child succumbs to burns after losing both parents

A child, who suffered burns in a fire sparked by a suspected gas leak in Dhaka’s Jatrabari, has died after losing both of her parents in the incident.

Three-and-a-half-year-old Rafia succumbed to her wounds around 3:30 am on Saturday, according to Dr Shawon Bin Rahman, resident surgeon at the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute's emergency department.

"Ninety per cent of her body was burnt. She was admitted to the intensive care unit due to severe burns in her airways as well.”

Around 1:00 am on Thursday, Ripon, 40, his wife Iti, 30, and their daughter Rafia were burnt in a fire sparked by accumulated gas on the ground floor of a building on Shaheed Farooq Road in Jatrabari. They were brought to the hospital at 2:00 am.

Iti died on Thursday afternoon, and Ripon passed away around 5:30 pm the same day.

Conflicting accounts have emerged regarding the cause of the fire.

Hospital authorities say they were informed that the gas had accumulated due to a cylinder leak. However, police suspect the gas may have come from an open manhole.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Al Amin of Jatrabari Police Station said that preliminary findings suggest the fire broke out from accumulated gas when a mosquito coil was lit in the ground-floor flat of a six-storey building on Shaheed Farooq Road.

Ripon and his family lived in that flat. Their ancestral home is in Shariatpur's Naria.