Two Girls Died In Tent Fire

MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 24: Two minor girls, who had survived the devastating October earthquake, died in a blaze in their flimsy tent in a mountain village near here, police and residents said on Saturday. The casualties occurred in the village of Rajpehan, some 30 kilometres southwest of Muzaffarabad, on Friday night.

A local journalist told Dawn that the impoverished tent caught fire from a candle which the inmates had left burning as they went into sleep.

The tent was reduced to ashes as the blaze flared due to a heap of dry grass dumped close to it, he said.

As a result, Saima, 5, and Amna, 2, died and their mother Fatima, wife of Akbar, suffered serious burn wounds and was airlifted to a Kharian hospital on Saturday, he said.

Police officer Syed Zahoor Gillani confirmed the incident.

“Yes there have been two deaths in that village caused by the blaze,” he said.

The Oct 8 earthquake killed around 70,000 people and left more than 3.5 million homeless most of which live in flimsy tents or temporary shelters.

As night temperatures start dropping below freezing point, many survivors defy warning by aid agencies not to burn fire inside their tents as it can endanger their lives.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said two days ago it would start training the survivors to make safe fires in their tents to avoid deadly accidents.

The agency would train people how to dig pits for a fire inside their tents, surround it with bricks and set up a chimney. It would provide sand-filled buckets to be used as fire extinguisher, said a UNHCR official.

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