Muhammad Zubair Khan
When the smoke spread in the room, I realized that there was a fire in our house. When he came out of the room, there was smoke everywhere. What a noise. Went to other rooms. He took out the one he could take out. I saw my step mother helping my father out. Then I fainted.
According to officials, ten members of the same family have died in a house fire in Patan area of Kohistan.
According to the police, seven women and three children are among the 10 dead. Gulab Khan remained safe in this incident and he is also an eyewitness of all this incident.
Gulab Khan says that my stepmother Zahida Bibi, who died in this incident, was very compassionate and brave.
“First they took my father to a safe place and then went back to the room to save the children, but they could not save themselves.”
Grandmother jumped into the fire to save her grandchildren.
Tehsil Patan chairman Maulana Rehmat Ali says that the grandmother of the dead children and Gulab Khan’s stepmother showed great bravery on this occasion.
She brought her ninety-year-old husband out of the room during the spreading fire. Her husband is not only old but he is also unable to walk.
When the husband was brought out and left, the fire was spreading rapidly and children’s screams were coming from inside. She left her husband outside and ran back inside.
Rehmat Ali says that people tried to stop her by shouting but she still went inside.
By that time the fire had spread a lot. After that, the woman’s screams were heard, but no one could do anything in the spreading fire.
“When I opened my eyes, I felt that my breath was stopped”
Gulab Khan says that his house has three floors, in which the lowest floor has a barn where the cattle are kept, while the children of six brothers live in eleven rooms on the second and third floors.
In total, 48 people lived in this one house, out of which ten died, three were injured while the rest were safe. Gulab Khan said that he and his other brothers are daily labourers.
He said that it would be half past one in the night, when his eyes suddenly opened.
“I suddenly felt like I was suffocating. I immediately sat up and saw that there was smoke in the whole room. On which I immediately took out all the people who were sleeping in my room.
Gulab Khan said that my room was on the second floor. I knocked on the doors of other rooms and raised them, all the brothers had woken up. Children and women were being taken out but the fire had spread. The smoke was so thick that it was difficult to breathe.
He said that among those killed were his stepmother, sister-in-law and some children in the same room.
The fire reached this room first. After that, it reached the other room adjacent to it and only the people in these two rooms were killed.
Gulab Khan said that he then heard the sound of firing, which meant that help had arrived, but the smoke was so heavy that I fainted.
‘The flames were talking to the sky’
According to Sajid Ali, Emergency Officer of RESCO 1122, he received information after 2 am that a house was on fire in Patan, after which he immediately reached the spot.
There he saw that the flames were talking to the sky. It was definitely a third degree fire.
He said that when the fire started to be controlled, it was realized that this work cannot be done by a team and a fire brigade.
Sajid Ali said that a total of 35 thousand liters of water was used to control the fire.
The operation started at around half past two and was completed at around eight in the morning. Meanwhile, the fire brigade had to go to fill water for the second time.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
According to SHO Patan Police Station Muhammad Shafiq, the incident took place at night, but the place where the incident took place is not a deserted area, but only a two-minute walk from the police station.
Muhammad Shafiq says that the policemen who were on patrol saw that the ground floor of a three-storey building was on fire.
When they immediately went to the spot, the fire was spreading very fast. They opened fire to wake up the local people, after which the local people came out, but the fire had spread for so long.
Muhammad Shafiq says that as a result of the initial investigation, we believe that the fire may have spread from the lower floor in the livestock shed.
On the other hand, Chairman of Patan Tehsil, Maulana Rehmat Ali, says that he too still does not understand the reason for the fire.
These people used solar panels for electricity. It is apparently not possible to cause a short circuit or a fire from a solar panel.
He said that one of the reasons for the rapid spread of the fire is that the building is made of wood.
Rescue 1122 Emergency Officer Sajid Ali also says that it is not yet known how the fire started.
“On the spot, we did not find any evidence that could be used to determine the cause of the fire.”
Gulab Khan says that he does not know why the fire broke out. We have no enmity and conflict with anyone. It is not possible to start a fire from the cattle pen because we people did not set anything on fire there. However, a fire is needed in winter to keep livestock warm. Now the winter is over. Therefore, there was no need to keep fire there.
He said that the only abode that housed the six brothers and 48 people was destroyed while all the goods, livestock and some cash accumulated after years of hard work were also burnt.
Now we will spend the night in the houses of close people and relatives. First, we have lost our loved ones, secondly, we have also lost our roof.