Mother, daughter burnt to death, 50 houses gutted

7 March 2010, 18:00 PM

Star National Desk

A mother and her daughter were burnt to death in Lalmonirhat while at least 50 thatched houses gutted in another incident of fire in Thakurgaon yesterday. According to a correspondent in Lalmonirhat, a mother and her 7-year-old daughter were burnt to death at Char Mukut under Kaligonj upazila early hours of yesterday. The victims are Shefali Begum, 40, wife of Shamsul Haque and Bithika Khatun, 7. Police and villagers said, the fire originated from the kitchen of Shamsul Haque at around 1:30am and engulfed the adjacent rooms where Shamsul, his wife, daughter and two sons were sleeping. In four other rooms there were five cows, six goats, tobacco and other crops. As the fire broke out all the family members except for Bithika rushed out of the rooms. After a while Shefali realised the matter and entered the house again to save her daughter but both were burnt to death. Villagers called the firefighters at Kaligonj, but the team could not reach the spot due to bad communication. So the villagers had to extinguish the fire themselves. In Thakurgaon, at least 50 thatched houses were gutted in a devastating fire yesterday at Velator village under Pirgonj upazila. Fire service sources said that the fire originated from a kitchen at Abdus Samad's house which spread soon to the adjacent houses belonging to 21 families. Fire fighters from Pirgonj rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control after one and a half hour of frantic efforts with the help of local people. The house owners claimed that the fire damaged property worth Tk 15 lakh. Meanwhile, at least 138 houses were gutted in separate fire incidents on Friday afternoon at Bashbari village under Panchagarh Sadar and at Darkhor village in Atwary upazila in Panchagarh. The first fire incident at Atwary Darkhor village at about 3:30pm gutted eight houses, firefighters and locals said. The fire originated from an earthen oven at Nurul Haque's house and soon engulfed the adjacent houses. The house owners claimed the fire damaged property worth Tk 5 lakh while the fire fighters estimated the loss at Tk 1.5 lakh. In the second incident, at about 4:45pm at Bashbari village under Sadar upazila in Panchagarh at least 130 houses were gutted. Firefighters and locals said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at Mokshed Ali's house. The fire damaged property worth Tk 50 lakh, claimed the affected villagers while the firefighters estimated the loss at Tk 20 lakh.