Published : 24 Aug 2025, 06:08 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 01:42 PM
A 1-month-old boy has died after suffering severe burns in a house fire in Narayanganj’s Siddhirganj Upazila.
The fire, which followed an explosion at a tin-roofed house in the Hirajheel area around 3am on Saturday, had already left several members of an extended family, including five children, badly injured.
Dr Sultan Mahmud Shikdar, acting resident surgeon at Dhaka’s National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, confirmed that the child, Imam Uddin, died on Sunday morning.
“He had burns across 30 percent of his body. He died at 7:50am while receiving treatment. Except for one, the condition of the other victims remains critical,” said Sultan.
The injured include Imam’s parents Hasan, 40, and Salma, 32, and his sisters Muntaha, 8, and Jannat, 4, Salma’s sister Asma Begum, 35, her husband Tanzil Islam, 40, daughter Tisha, 17, and son Arafat, 15.
Doctors said most of the victims had suffered burns covering 37-53 percent of their bodies.
A neighbour said sisters Asma and Salma had been living in adjacent rooms of the tin-roofed home with their families. “Neighbours heard a loud bang before the fire broke out. The false ceiling in the house caught fire and collapsed on the family, making their injuries worse,” said Habibur Rahman, a friend of Hasan, who helped take them to hospital.
Initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak, Fire Service officials later said the fire started after a refrigerator compressor exploded following an electrical short circuit. The flames spread quickly to a second room, leaving both families trapped.
Among the victims, Asma suffered burns on 48 percent of her body, Tisha 53 percent, Arafat 15 percent, Salma 48 percent, Hasan 44 percent, Muntaha 37 percent, and Jannat 40 percent, according to Dr Shawon Bin Rahman, resident surgeon at the burn institute.
