Son all too lonely as mother also departs

With 90 percent of her body burnt, Sumaiya Khanam had been fighting a grim battle for life for 10 days.

Her painful groans, coupled with cries of loss of her two little children and husband in a devastating fire, would fill the air inside the hospital she was admitted to.

Between the cries and groans, Sumaiya would bemoan how her neighbours declined to help them when all her family members were on fire.

But yesterday, all her complaints and sufferings came to an end.

Sumaiya's brain stopped working around 11:45am and she was put on artificial life support. But she breathed her last at 3:15pm, said doctors at City Hospital Ltd where she was transferred from Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Tuesday.

She was aged around 40.

On February 26, a fire engulfed her apartment at Uttara Sector-5 in the capital when her husband Mohammad Shahnawaz, 50, lit the gas stove around 6:30am to make tea.

The couple and their three children -- one-year-old Zayan Bin Newaz, Zarif Bin Newaz, 9, and Sharlin Bin Newaz, 14 -- were burnt. They were rushed to the DMCH burn unit.

Zayana and Sharlin died there later that day. Shahnawaz, a maintenance engineer at the US embassy in Dhaka, succumbed to his burns a day later.

With Sumaiya's death yesterday, Zarif is the lone survivor of the incident. He had six percent of his body burnt and now he needs skin grafting.

"We will soon get him admitted to a hospital after his mother's burial," said Quamrul Ahsan, Sumaiya's brother-in-law.

The mother had not said anything about the child's custody before her death, according to Nazmus Sakib, a nephew of Shahnawaz.

"Family members of Shahnawaz and Sumaiya will sit together to decide about Zarif's custody," he said.

According to Sumaiya's wish, she would be buried at her family graveyard at Nabogram in Barisal Sadar upazila. Her children too were buried there but Shahnawaz was laid to rest at his native village in Jhalakathi, said Quamrul.

He told The Daily Star that Sumaiya's condition started deteriorating on Saturday evening.

"Towards the last stage, she would speak about her hope of recovery. She even told us that she would perform Hajj if she fully recovered. But that was not to be," Quamrul said.

"Lying in the hospital bed, Sumaiya told us how her neighbours refused to help them when they, still on fire, ran from one door to another in the apartment building, seeking help. But the neighbours had shut the doors on their face.

"Only if one of them had provided a blanket to wrap around their burning bodies, things could have been different, Sumaiya lamented," said Quamrul, who works as a manager at a private security firm.

Though an unnatural death case was filed after the incident, Quamrul now suspects foul play.

He said, "Anyone from outside may have kept inflammable objects inside the house. We don't rule out such possibilities since my brother worked at the American embassy.

"My brother (Shahnawaz) was preparing to go to America with his family to settle there permanently ... We want a fair investigation into this," he added.

Contacted, Officer-in-Charge Ali Hossain Khan of Uttara West Police Station said if anyone files any specific complaint against someone, the police would look into it.

The Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, which provided the gas connection to the victims' apartment, was carrying out an investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire, the OC told this correspondent.