Fifth victim dies from burns in Gazipur covered van fire

Md Anwar Hossain was the last to die after a fire on a covered van carrying gas canisters parked at a filling station

Md Anwar Hossain, the fifth victim of a covered van fire in Gazipur, has died of his burns.

For two weeks, Anwar, who hailed from Thakurgaon’s Pirganj and had suffered burns to 35 percent of his body in the incident, had been receiving treatment at the Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute in Dhaka.

The 30-year-old man died at 10:30 pm on Sunday night, according to Dr SM Ayub Hossain, a resident physician at the institute.

A Junaid Enterprise covered van had stopped at the Hajji Wahed Ali CNG Filling Station in Gazipur’s Borobari area on Oct 13 to fuel up. The vehicle was carrying over 100 empty gas cylinders.

A fire started after a sudden noise as the vehicle was filling up. Three fire service units took 1.5 hours to bring the fire under control.

Five victims were admitted to the burn institute in Dhaka for treatment. Mithu Miah, 36, died the following day.

Md Parvez, 31, died on Oct 17, Al Amin, 25, on Oct 18, and Sirajul Islam Tutul, 28, on Oct 20.

All of the victims were covered van workers, police say.