Boy dies, 6 others hurt in explosion

A child died and six other people also suffered burn injuries in a gas explosion in the capital's Jatrabari area yesterday morning. 

Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station, said they suspected that the explosion took place from accumulated gas when someone attempted to light a stove on the ground floor of a two-storey building in Dhalpur around 8:30am.

Part of the building's wall collapsed on the deceased when he was coming down the stairs from the first floor, the OC added.

The victim, Tahsin, 7, a nursery student, died on the spot. The injured are Suman, 40, his wife Sajuli, 35, son Nishan, 14, and aunt Atar Begum, 70, and Tahsin's father Alamgir, 30, and his mother Kajali, 24. 

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Tahsin's parents left Dhaka Medical College Hospital after primary treatment. The four others were in a critical condition with 38 and 75 percent burns, said Partha Shankar Paul, a resident surgeon at the hospital's burn and plastic surgery unit.

The victims are from two families. Except Tahsin, Atar and Nishan, all are cleaners at private organisations.

Suman's family lives on the ground floor of the building while Alamgir's family resides on the first floor. Alamgir and his wife sustained burns as they tried to save their son Tahsin, said Oliullah Hossain Raj, a brother of Sajuli.

Suman, Sajuli and Nishan were sleeping at the time of explosion, he said, adding that Nishan, a class-VII student at a Dakhil madrasa in Khulna, came to the house on Thursday. 

Suman's two daughters -- Eshita, 5, and Rumi, 4 -- did not fall victims to the incident as they were outside when the explosion happened, he said.

Suman's family has been living in the house in Dhalpur's City Colony area for the last eight years, Sajuli said.

A fire service official said the explosion might have taken place when someone tried to light a stove or the accumulated gas could have come into contact with faulty power lines.

The exact reason why the gas was accumulated could not be known immediately, added the official. 

Incidents of fire and explosion from leaky gas lines have been frequent.

Six people of a building in the capital's Uttarkhan died of burns after leaky gas lines caused a fire in a kitchen on October 13.

Earlier this year, four students of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology died of burn injuries in a similar incident in Mymensingh.

According to Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, 4,236 incidents of fire from stoves took place last year, which accounts for 23.40 percent of total fire incidents that year.