Toddler died from apartment fire in N’ganj

A one and a half-year-old victim of the Narayanganj apartment fire incident died from injuries at the intensive care unit of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery on Friday morning.

Deceased Minhaj had suffered 45 percent burns and died at around 9:30 am, said the institute residential surgeon Partha Sankar Paul. So far, three victims of the incident have died, said the hospital sources. Six members of a family, including four children, sustained burn injuries in an explosion in their Fatulla apartment early March 9. The injured were Mishal, 26, his wife Mita Begum, 23, their one-and-a-half-year-old son Minhaj, daughter Afsana, 5, and brothers-in-law Mahfuz, 13, and Sabbir, 15.

They were sent to Narayanganj General Hospital and later were shifted to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka. Mishal, who suffered 90 percent burns, and Mahfuz died Wednesday. Three more victims are now undergoing treatment at the hospital with one of them is in a critical condition. The fire service officer said that leakage in a gas cylinder in the apartment triggered the accident. The flat was full of gas.

The family members might have pressed an electric switch or ignited mosquito coil which had caused the blast,’ said local fire service official Abdullah Arefin. The flat’s doors and windows were shattered in the blast.