Three house helps severely burnt in fire at Gulshan apartment

A fire in an apartment in Dhaka's upscale neighbourhood of Gulshan has left three house helps severely burnt.

Police said the fire broke out early on Monday in a second floor apartment of the 'Navana Tower' on Road 73 in Gulshan-2.

"The fire broke out in a room of the flat.The three house helps were in that room," Gulshan police's Inspector Md Salauddin told bdnews24.com.

The house helps -- Sharifa Aktar, 18, Parvin Begum, 38, and Bedana Akter, 20 -- have been taken to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

"Their conditions are critical," burns unit Resident Physician Partha Shankar Paul said.

He said Sharifa and Bedana have suffered 90 percent burns while Parvin 20 percent.

The fire service said they were informed of the fire around 6am.

Its control room official Ataur Rahman said they were yet to ascertain the cause of the fire.

Police siad there were no gas cylinders in the apartment. "We suspect a glitch on the pipe for supplying gas may have caused the fire," said Inspector Salauddin.