After mother, daughter dies in Bhashantek ‘gas fire sparked by mosquito coil’

As many as six members of the family were burnt in the fire

A woman burnt in a house fire in Dhaka’s Bhashantek a day after Eid-ul-Fitr has died in hospital, taking the number of fatalities in the incident to two.

The woman Surjo Banu, 47, passed away from burns on 82 percent of her body surface at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery on Monday evening.

Her mother Meherun Nesa, 65, died on Saturday.

Surjo Banu’s husband, Mohammad Liton, 52, their son Sujon, 9, and daughters, Liza, 18, and Lamia, 7, all identified with single names, were also injured in the incident.

None of them are out of danger, said Md Tarikul Islam, resident physician of the institute.

The family from Cumilla’s Laksam lived in a ground-floor flat of a two-storey house in Bhashantek.

Police said the family had a kitchen gas cylinder outside the main building, but connected to the stove via a pipeline that went through a hole in a metal door.

The law enforcers believe the pipe somehow leaked and gas accumulated in the house. When someone tried to light a mosquito coil early on Friday morning, the fire spread through the house.