Islamabad
December 7, 2005
IRNA
Pakistan-Blaze — At least seven Pakistan earthquake survivors, including four children, have died and three others injured when fire erupted in a tent in the country's quake-hit zone, state run television reported on Wednesday.
Photo: Kashmiri girls left homeless by the Oct. 8 earthquake sit next to a fire in a refugee camp in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Wednesday Dec. 7, 2005. The Oct. 8 quake killed more than 87,000 people, destroyed the homes of 3.5 million others, and left 4.5 million dependent on food aid. (AP Photo/Tomas Munita)
The incident happened between the night of Monday and Tuesday in a tent, erected on the rubble of a destroyed house in Chathar Plain area of North West Frontier Province, one of the quake zones of October 8th earthquake, which killed more than 73,000 people, the PTV reported.
The fire may have been caused by a candle, it reported.
There is no lighting facility in most of the tents and the survivors are using candles for light, aid workers say.
Reports said that three persons died on the spot while four later died in hospital.
Aid workers and the army pulled the injured out of the burnt tent and shifted them to nearby hospital, the report said.
The earthquake has rendered some 3.5 million people homeless and more than two hundred thousands are living in tents.
Last week a top UN official warned that 90% of the 420,000 tents distributed to survivors are not "winterized" and are not by themselves adequate for the freezing Himalayan weather that is already rolling into the area.
Aid agencies are also warning that a lack of food and shelter, combined with increasingly harsh winter conditions, could cause a second wave of deaths for victims of the October 8 earthquake.
Despite the government appeal to the survivors to come down from the mountains, many are still reluctant to leave cold mountainous areas.
Pakistani officials are urging countries to send more winterized tents and corrugated iron sheets, as reconstruction activities will begin after the completion of a survey to determine what areas are safe, probably in another few weeks.
Reports say that at least ten people are known to have died from cold-related ailments such as pneumonia since the onset of the brutal Himalayan winter, and hundreds stream into hospitals every day.
Doctors say the situation could worsen in the coming weeks if arrangements are not made quickly to provide adequate shelters for the estimated 3.5 million people who lost their homes in the 7.6-magnitude quake.
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