Fire at widow’s house ‘burns daughters dowry’

Cash and gold saved up for daughters dowry was destroyed in the fire, claims widow.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:
A fire broke out at a widow’s house on Tuesday burning, she claimed, among other things Rs300,000 in cash and 154 grams of gold she had saved up for her six daughter’s dowries.

The roof of the one-room house collapsed due the damage caused by the fire.

Bashira Bibi, a resident of Qaddafi Colony, and her six daughters had gone out to visit a relative. She told The Express Tribune that she got a call from a neighbour informing her about the fire.

“We rushed back only to see smoke coming out of the window,” she said, adding that since her husband’s death she had been saving up for her daughters’ dowries.

The widow said that she had married her son two weeks ago and her daughter-in-law’s dowry also got burnt in the fire. The fire also spread to Bashira’s brother-in-law’s house next door

Rescue officials said that narrow streets in the area and the rush of neighbours outside the house was impeding them from carrying out the rescue work.


They said that the damage could have been avoided had the passage to the house not been so narrow.

The cause of the fire could not be ascertained. Neighbours, that had gathered outside the house and were helping the Rescue 1122 officials fetch things out of the house, speculated that the fire could have been caused due to short circuit. Rescue officials, however, disagreed.

They said that fire caused by a short circuit could not have spread so fast.

Some people suggested that because of gas load shedding, the women could have left their stove’s gas knob on. It could have spread instill the room and caught fire, they said. Others, however, rejected the theory saying that had it been due to a gas leak someone in the neighbourhood would have smelled it.

Sub Inspector Abdul Manan of the C-division police station who was at the scene said that police would investigate the matter.

However, when The Tribune contacted the police on Thursday, the station clerk said that no case had yet been registered.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2010.
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