Fatal play with fire

Two minor siblings faced a tragic end of their lives after a fire broke out in their house as they played with a matchbox at Ghola village in Chitalmari upazila of Bagerhat yesterday afternoon, said police.

The charred bodies of Habil Sheikh, 7, and three-and-half-year-old Chandni Sheikh, children of farmer Khokon Sheikh, were found following the fire which damaged the house totally.

During the incident, the children's parents were working in a shrimp enclosure near their house, Chitalmari Police Station Officer-in-Charge Dilip Kumar Sarkar told The Daily Star.

The wooden fence of the house caught fire after Habil rubbed a match along the matchbox, he said.

Although their neighbors rushed to the spot and doused the blaze, they could not save Habil and his sister Chandni.

Our staff correspondent from Chittagong reports, an elderly died in a fire that broke out in his house at a slum in Arefinnagar area of Chittagong city yesterday.

Abul Ali, 60, of Barisal, was sleeping while the fire originated from the oven of his kitchen around 3:00am, fire service officials said.

Three other adjacent shanties were also damaged and two cows of Ali were burnt in the fire.

Fire fighters doused the blaze around 5:15am and estimated the loss caused by it at Tk 3 lakh.