Fire in flat kills elderly woman
An elderly woman died from smoke inhalation and two others required medical attention after a fire broke out at a residential building in the capital’s Dhanmondi area yesterday.
The dead, Jamila Kuti, 65, used to work as a domestic help on a seventh-floor flat of Zahir’s South Lakeview, a 13-storey building located on road 6/A.
Residents of the building said Jamila got trapped in the staircase while rushing downstairs as large plumes of smoke started billowing upwards from the second floor, where the fire originated around 9:00am.
Firefighters found her lying unconscious on the staircase between the third and fourth floors and took her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared her dead around 11:00am, said Bachchu Mia, in-charge of the hospital police outpost.
Two others -- Selina Begum, 70, and Shaheda, 12 -- fell sick following the incident.
Selina, mother of Dhaka University Professor Mesbah Kamal, lives on the seventh floor and Shaheda works as a house help on the second-floor flat, where the fire started.
The fire gutted almost everything of the 4000-square feet flat owned by Hemayet Ullah, chief executive officer of a life insurance company, the building’s manager Shamim Uddin told The Daily Star.
Hemayet’s son Rafsan and two of their house helps, including Shaheda, was in the apartment during the incident, the manager said, adding that the two others escaped without injury.
No other flats were damaged in the incident, he added.
Dwellers of some upper floors took shelter in the rooftop while many climbed down to safety using the fire exits, said Abdul Jabbar, a security guard of the building.
Three fire engines doused the flames after an hour, said Mohammad Rasel, duty officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defense headquarters.
Firefighters are suspecting that the fire started from an electric short circuit as the investigation is underway.
Mrittika, a resident of a seventh-floor flat, told this newspaper that their flat caught fire due to electric short circuits twice before -- once in two years back and again in January this year.
She suspected that the faulty electrical wiring of the building was causing the recurrence of fire incidents.
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