Couple, son die in Khilgaon fire

A former deputy director of the education ministry, his wife and 26-year-old son died while another 20-year-old son sustained minor injuries in a fire in their Riazbagh flat in the capital's Khilgaon early yesterday.
Mohammad Siraj Ullah, 55, a Japan International Cooperation Agency consultant, succumbed to his injuries at around 1:00pm at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit.
As the trio, with nearly 100 percent burns, were rushed to the hospital around 7:15am, doctors declared the wife, Kaniz Fatema Koli, 45, dead.
Of the sons, Rashidul Hasan Sifat, an engineer, suffering 95 percent burns died in the ICU at around 8:30pm while Masudul Hasan Shihab was given first aid.
The fire, breaking out on their first-floor flat at the seven-storey building around 6:00am, might have originated from an electrical short circuit, said Station Officer Nazrul Islam of Khilgaon Fire Service and Civil Defence.
“The TV in the couple's bedroom might have overheated and caught fire.”
Neighbours doused the fire within a couple of minutes, contacted fire fighters and took the victims to DMCH. They said they had heard an explosion and suspected it to be from accumulated gas since the flat's windows were shut.
The bedrooms of the couple and Sifat were burnt down while some furniture in the dining room was also burnt.
Koli's brother-in-law Mohammad Elhamul Islam said the brothers slept in separate rooms while a friend of Shihab was staying over.
“Law enforcers are investigating the cause of the fire,” said Officer-in-Charge Delwar Hossain of Rampura Police Station, with which an unnatural death case was filed.