He sacrificed himself to save wife, son

He braved an all-engulfing fire and managed to save his wife and son, but at the end it cost him his own life.

As a devastating blaze broke out due to a gas leak in the kitchen at a house in Dhaka's Uttarkhan area on October 13, Dablu Mondal quickly took his wife and son to the washroom, put them under the shower sprinkler, and turned it on.

Out of eight residents of the house, only Anjuara Begum, 30, and her six-year-old son Abdullah Sourav are alive because of her 33-year old husband, a rickshaw puller.

As the two crammed under the spraying water, there was no place left for Dablu to stand underneath. Without hesitation, he used himself as a shield to protect his loved ones, Anjuara told The Daily Star recently at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), while undergoing treatment at the burn unit.

When they were rescued, Dablu had suffered 65 percent burns while Abdullah and Anjuara had 12 and six percent respectively.

Dablu died at the burn unit of DMCH on October 17, after fighting for his life for four days.

Anjuara and Abdullah were released from DMCH on Tuesday morning, and reached their village home in Pabna, still unaware of Dablu's fate. Only after reaching home, her relatives could summon the courage to inform her of the tragedy.

Since surviving the accident, Anjuara could only dream of starting life anew with her family in their village home, only to be knocked back by the hard truth that her husband will not be with them anymore.

The other five victims -- Azizul Haque, 27; Muslima Aktar, 20; Purnima, 35; Sagor, 12; and Sufia Begum, 60, were all related.