The impoverished family, with the 52-year-old security guard as the only breadwinner, could not even dream to rent a room with Hira Bahadur´s meager salary, and were staying put ignoring the KFVDMC instruction. Their inability to rent a room somewhere else has cost the Puns dear as the Saturday night´s fire killed four members of the family and has left Hira Bahadur´s wife Hikka on deathbed. [break]
Hira Bahadur of Halwara VDC -3, Dang, and his three children -- Shanti, 16, Nira, 14, and Nirajan, 11 -- died in the incident, while his second wife Hikka, 38, married to Hira four years ago after the death of the mother of all his kids, has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Army Hospital in Chhauni with severe burn injuries. “She was worried over finding another room to live when she spoke to me four days ago,” Hikka´s elder sister Sita Roka said.
The Puns were a happy family with Hikka never showing step-motherly attitude toward the kids and an interest to bear children of her own. The kids were all students of Nil Barahi Higher Secondary School at Kalimati. Shanti was a ninth-grader, Nira sixth and Nirajan studied in the fifth grade. According to the principal of the school Januka Nepali, Nira was brilliant in her studies and was among the top three students of her class. The school was closed on Sunday in mourning of its three students.
Sita, Hikka´s sister, said that the economic condition of Pun family was miserable. “My sister used to complain that they were being pressured to vacate the room and that they had nowhere to go,” said Sita. According to her, Hikka, who lies unconscious in the ICU, does not know yet that all her family members have died in the incident.
“When I saw the fire in the building, I immediately thought of Hira and his family. Later, we found their dead bodies,” Bal Bahadur Adhikari, who was sleeping next to the gutted building, said. The electricity was scheduled to come at 11pm, but it came an hour earlier and caused the fire.
He said dozens of laborers sleep in the market as trucks carrying vegetables come in night. “There were about 500 people around when the fire started, including laborers, traders, policemen and army, but all were mere spectators,” Adhikari said, adding, “The fire was brought under control only after the whole building was gutted down.” He said that the burnt remains of Shanti was found in toilet, Nirajan´s in the stair and Hira Bahadur´s on the bed. “The channel gate was locked from outside and it seems they tried to escape but failed,” he added.
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