Fatullah blast: Son succumbs to burn injuries only a few hours after father’s death

16-year-old Rakib, his father, and his two brothers had been undergoing treatment after the explosion

Three hours after an explosion sparked by a gas leak in Narayanganj’s Fatullah took the life of a man, it has also claimed that of his son.

Rakib, 16, his father, and his two brothers had been undergoing treatment for their burn injuries at the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

Rakib died around 2pm on Friday, said the institute’s Assistant Professor Shawon Bin Rahman.

He had suffered burns on 25 percent of his body.

Abdul Quader, Rakib’s father, had died around 10:45am in the day. He had been undergoing treatment after suffering burns on 57 percent of his body.

The explosion in the Kutubpur Rakhibazar area occurred on Monday morning, resulting in serious burn injuries to four members of the family.

Quader’s two other sons – Mehedy, 17, and Sakib, 16 – are still undergoing treatment at the same hospital. Mehedy has burns on 18 percent of his body, Sakib on 17 percent.

Quader was an autorickshaw driver by trade while Mehedy was a Halim vendor, Shakib a factory worker, and Rakib a Chatpoti seller.

The family hailed from Chandpur’s Matlab.

Quader, his wife and sons rented a place in a one-storey house.

At the time of the explosion, the father and three sons were sleeping and their mother was out collecting water for cooking.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence said that the blast could have been caused by a gas leak in the house.

Another gas explosion had occurred in Fatullah’s Giridhara area the day before the tragedy. It claimed the lives of five members of the same family, who died one after the other at the burn institute.