He finds it difficult to believe that his kids are gone forever from this world. “What was the fault of my heartthrobs that they were taken away from me?” he asks. His relatives and neighbors gathered in front of his rented home listened to him in mournful silence. [break]
It was hard for him to listen about the fire accident that occurred after a stove burst in another floor of the same house in Damai Tole-19.
Barely literate himself, Siwakoti, a street vendor near Ratna Park and Bir Hospital area, wanted to give his sons better education.
“I don´t know how and why should I work now? I don´t know where to go?” he said.
Siwakoti and his wife had gone out to work leaving their two sons at home, locking their room from outside. When the accident took place, his elder son Rajeev, who had just turned 6, and younger son Sanjeev, 3, were most likely asleep.
Sumitra Bisunkhe, 37, originally from Dhading district and a neighbor of the deceased family, said that it was difficult for the children to come out even if the doors were unlocked. Usually in the evening, the two played and slept in the room as their parents were out of home, she said. "No body could hear their cries for help as most families living here were away," she said.
The fire broke out in the four-storey house of Hanuman Das Dangol while Dev Kala Magar, 50, another tenant, was cooking dinner. Magar, who had been living in the house with her blind husband Mohan Chaudhary, also died in the accident. “The house is so congested, old and dark; it was hard for anyone to find the way out in case of emergency but fortunately the blind man was able to escape the accident.”
Chaudhary has been taking shelter at a nearby temple after the accident. “I have no sons and daughters. My wife looked after me. But she is no more. Who will take care of me now?” he said.
Remembering the incident, he said, “I was sleeping in a corner and on the other corner my wife was cooking dinner. All of sudden she screamed ´Fire, fire´. I, too, felt some heat and ran out of the room.”
Mohan Chaudhary
"I was habituated to the exit of the house and thinking that my wife was also following me, I ran. But she happened to be trapped inside," he added.
Reminiscing about the time he met her, he said, “My left eye was fine when we met each other about ten years ago.”
"I heard that her dead body has been lying at a hospital as there is no one to claim the body and perform funerals," he said. "I would perform the last rites if somebody helped me."
Shashi Shrestha, ward chairman, said, “I have asked some old age home to take in Chaudhary.” Under the initiation of a local youth club, we have collected some funds which will be provided to the victims, he added.
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