Everything burnt in fire, husband missing, a woman waits with her three children
Three children lay on a thin mat spread on the ground beneath the ramp of the Kalshi flyover. To shield them from the heavy rain and cold, their mother wrapped a black blanket around them. She sat beside them.
There is no sleep in mother Razia Begum’s eyes, and her face bears the marks of exhaustion. The family’s only shelter has been razed to the ground by fire. To make matters worse, her husband has been missing for nearly a week. She does not know what the future holds for her.
Razia was found sitting beneath the Kalshi flyover at around 12:30 pm today, Tuesday. Beside her lay her 10-month-old son Ibrahim, three-year-old daughter Mansura, and seven-year-old daughter Aduri.
The fire broke out yesterday around 7:30 pm at a slum in the Kalshi area of Pallabi in the capital. Approximately 1,200 shanties including Razia's home were reduced to ashes in the fire.
Razia works as a domestic help. She earns about Tk 7,000 a month by working in three households. That income barely covered the expenses of her five-member family. However, the fire has now turned her home and all her belongings into ash.
This tragedy follows another crisis in her life. According to Razia, her husband, Ratan Mia, left home in a fit of anger on 20 May. She has had no contact with him since.
Razia Begum broke into tears repeatedly while recalling the moment the fire started. She said, “I had just sat down to eat with my children. Suddenly, the power went out. Then I heard people screaming—fire, fire!”
“I managed to get out of the house with my son in my arms and grabbing my two daughters by the hand. I couldn't save anything. Everything has been burnt to cinders,” she added.
Razia spent the entire night under the flyover with her children. She said, “We had no meal last night. I bought some bread and bananas for the children, but I didn't eat anything myself. This morning, I received three packets of khichuri—that’s all we've had. We haven't received anything for lunch yet.”
The single-room shanty they lived in cost Tk 2,500 a month in rent. Despite their low income, it was their safe haven. Now, that home is gone, along with every household item.
Anxiety and uncertainty over the future of her three children seem to have overwhelmed her. The pain of losing everything in the fire is compounded by her husband’s absence. Razia lamented, “I don’t know how I will survive now. Even their (the children’s) father hasn’t checked on us.”
As she spoke, she adjusted the blankets on her children and occasionally swatted away flies and mosquitoes from their faces. She said she is waiting for her husband to look for them and return; only then would she find the courage to start anew.
When asked if she had tried to contact him, she replied with a hint of resentment, “Why should I call? The whole world knows there was a fire. He might be angry with me, but doesn't he have any affection for his children?”
According to the Fire Service, there were between 1,000 and 1,200 shanties and shops in the slum, housing approximately 3,500 people. The Fire Service reported that the blaze was brought under control by 9:35 pm yesterday.
By the afternoon, many were seen standing in front of their gutted homes, searching through the debris for anything that might have survived. Some used broken sticks, while others cleared piles of burnt corrugated iron and charcoal with their bare hands.
One person searched for a pot, another for a part of a gas stove. Despite the devastation, people’s hope has not entirely vanished as they desperately try to salvage something from their last remaining possessions.