Everything Lost in Fire

 

Everything Lost in Fire, Husband Missing: Mother Waits Under Flyover With Three Children

Three small children lay on a thin mat beneath the ramp of the Kalshi flyover, wrapped in a black blanket to protect them from the cold rain. Sitting beside them was their mother, Razia Begum, exhausted and sleepless after losing everything in a devastating fire.

Razia’s tiny home in the Kalshi slum of Pallabi was destroyed in a massive blaze on Monday evening that reduced around 1,200 shanties to ashes. Adding to her hardship, her husband has been missing for nearly a week, leaving her alone to care for their three children with no clear idea of what lies ahead.

Razia was found sitting under the flyover around 12:30 pm on Tuesday with her 10-month-old son Ibrahim, three-year-old daughter Mansura, and seven-year-old daughter Aduri.

The fire broke out around 7:30 pm on Monday in the densely populated slum area. Razia, who works as a domestic helper in three households, earns around Tk 7,000 a month — barely enough to support her family of five. Now, even that fragile stability has disappeared.

Speaking through tears, Razia recalled the terrifying moment the fire began.

“I had just sat down to eat with my children when the electricity suddenly went out,” she said. “Then people started screaming, ‘Fire! Fire!’”

Holding her infant son in her arms and pulling her two daughters by the hand, she rushed out of the burning home. “I couldn’t save anything,” she said. “Everything was burned to ashes.”

The disaster came just days after another personal crisis. According to Razia, her husband, Ratan Mia, left home angrily on 20 May and has not contacted the family since.

Razia and her children spent the entire night under the flyover without proper food or shelter.

“We didn’t eat dinner last night,” she said softly. “I bought some bread and bananas for the children, but I didn’t eat anything myself. This morning, we received three packets of khichuri. We still haven’t received lunch.”

The single-room home they rented for Tk 2,500 a month may have been modest, but it was the family’s only refuge. Now, nothing remains — no clothes, no furniture, no household belongings.

The uncertainty surrounding her children’s future has left Razia overwhelmed. Along with the pain of losing her home, she is struggling with the absence of her husband.

“I don’t know how we will survive now,” she said. “Even their father hasn’t come to see us.”

As she spoke, she carefully adjusted the blanket covering her children and brushed flies and mosquitoes away from their faces. Despite everything, she said she still hopes her husband will return and help them rebuild their lives.

When asked whether she had tried contacting him, a note of anger entered her voice.

“Why should I call?” she asked. “Everyone knows about the fire. He may be angry with me, but doesn’t he care about his children?”

According to the Fire Service, the slum contained between 1,000 and 1,200 shanties and shops and was home to nearly 3,500 residents. Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by 9:35 pm.

By Tuesday afternoon, many residents were still searching through the ruins of their burned homes, hoping to recover anything that survived. Some dug through the debris with broken sticks, while others used bare hands to move charred tin sheets and piles of ashes.

One searched for a cooking pot, another for part of a gas stove. Amid the destruction, many still clung to hope, desperately trying to salvage whatever remained of their lives.