Another Uttarkhan fire victim dies

A day after Azizul and his wife Muslima died in a fire incident in the capital's Uttarkhan, his aunt, 60-year-old Sufia Begum, also succumbed to her injuries yesterday at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Sufia and all seven of her family members were burnt after their 3-bedroom flat in Beparipara area caught fire early morning on Saturday.

The elderly woman had 99 percent burns when she was brought to the hospital, said Partha Shankar Paul, resident surgeon at DMCH burn unit.

Motaleb Hossain, Sufia's son-in-law, who came to DMCH from Pabna to receive her body, said his mother-in-law, for the first time in her life, rented a flat in a building only two months back.

Almost all throughout her life, Sufia had lived in different slums in Pabna and Dhaka. Her struggle started around 30 years ago when her husband left her and she had to start working as a maid in Pabna to support her two young daughters.

She continued her struggle as a maid after she moved to Dhaka in 2002 along with her daughters and their husbands. Motaleb and his wife, Sufiua's elder daughter, moved back to Pabna a few years later, he said.

Sufia was faced with further troubles when her younger daughter Purnima, who had a 2-year-old son, was also divorced around the same time. But Sufia did not give up, he added.

Purnima later found a job with a garment factory and together they recently rented the flat, Motaleb said, adding that both Purnima and her son are now in the hospital with critical burn injuries.

Fire officials suspect that the blast and the fire occurred due to gas leak in the kitchen of the flat.