Man dies with wife and 3 children in Bailey Road fire before returning to Italy

Syed Mubarak Ali is an expatriate in Italy, but was back in Bangladesh on holiday. He was supposed to return to Italy this month. He was killed in the fire at the multi-storey building on Bailey Road in the capital. He was killed along with his wife, two daughters and son.

The dead persons include Mubarak’s wife Swapna Akhter, daughters Syeda Tuz Zohra (19) and Amina Akhter (13) and son Abdullah (8).

Relatives had gathered around the body of Mubarak’s daughter Amina at the Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

Ayesha Akhter, cousin of Mubarak’s wife Swapna Akhter, said that four of the bodies were at the Dhaka Medical morgue and one at the burn hospital. They would all be buried at their village home in Shahbazpur, Brahmanbaria. They owned a flat at Modhubagh in Dhaka.

Ayesha Akhter said, there was no one surviving in their family, all five had died. Mubarak was due to leave within a few days and that’s why they had all gone out to dinner. One of the daughter’s SSC exams were on. Their visas were being processed so they could all go to Italy.

The relatives wept, “It is all over!”

At least 43 persons have died in the fire at the multi-storey building in Bailey Road. Another 22 are seriously injured. It is feared that the death count will increase. The building caught on fire at around 9:45pm Thursday night. After the fire was extinguished, the victims were recovered and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

The fire took place at a seven-storey building on Bailey Road Thursday night. There is an eatery ‘Kachchi Bhai’ on the second floor of the building. There are other food outlets on other floors of the building and a clothes store on the third floor. The eateries throng with customers every evening. It was a popular place for families to eat out too.