Narayanganj House Explosion: Death Toll Rises to 7

NN ONLINE:

An explosion at a tin-shed house in Narayanganj’s Siddhirganj Upazila has raised the death toll to seven. One more victim, identified only as Asma, died from burn injuries. Eight members of two families were admitted to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery after the Aug 23 blast; among them, 8-year-old Muntaha remains hospitalized.

Details released by Dr. Shawon Bin Rahman, a residential surgeon at the burn institute, indicate Asma, 35, was admitted to the ICU with 50 percent burns and died at 11 p.m. Friday. The fire began in the early hours of Aug 23 in a tin-shed home in Painaadi Purba Para, injuring nine people from two adjacent houses. Hasan, 40, his wife Salma, 32, their children Jannat, 4, and Muntaha, 8, infant Imam Uddin (1 month), nephew Arafat (18), niece Trisha Akhter (17), and sister-in-law Asma (35) sustained burns. Hasan’s family members had varying burn percentages, with Hasan at 44 percent and Trisha at 53 percent, among others.

Over the following days, Imam Uddin died, followed by Tahera Akhter (Hasan’s mother-in-law), Hasan, Jannat, Salma, Trisha, and finally Asma. Fire officials initially attributed the blaze to a refrigerator compressor explosion caused by a short circuit, though locals speculated gas leakage from the Titas pipeline as the primary cause.