Dying father’s plea: ‘Save my daughter, my wife’

A 50 year – old farmer Aneesh Chandra could not contain his emotions when recalling his neighbor’s plea to save his wife and daughter as their home caught fire.

The plea ‘save my daughter, save my wife’ were the last dying words of 32 year – old Shivam Singh, who jumped out of the window to try and save himself as the fire had spread across the house.  

“He jumped out of the window from the side of the house, he fell on the ground and I could hear him gasping for air while shouting for help,” Mr Singh said.

“When I got to him (Mr Singh), he was already burnt so I tried to drag him away from the house as the heat was strong. When I grabbed his hand, I could feel his burnt skin peeling off.

Mr Chandra had nicknamed Mr Singh as ‘Don’.

Mr Singh later died in hospital.

“He attempted to go back inside the burning home to save his family, but I grabbed the side of his pants to stop him.”

Mr Singh, his wife Priya Lal, 24, their three-year-old daughter Akriti Singh, and his parents, Satish Chand, 56, and Anita Devi, 56, were inside the house when the fire broke out around 12:30am.

Mr Chandra claims the fire may have started from the kitchen because he saw smoke coming out from the back of the house where the kitchen is located.

Looking at how far the fire had spread across the three-bedroom wooden house, Mr Chandra ran to another family nearby for help.

The night before, Mr Chandra had just returned from visiting his wife’s cousin, had dinner and was resting in his bedroom.

Mr Chandra recalled that around 12.30am on Thursday morning, he heard glasses breaking and instantly thought there was an attempted break at his neighbour’s house.

“That’s when I looked out from my bedroom window and saw that the house was on fire,” he said.

“I immediately alerted my family and called the National Fire Authority and police for help. Then, I ran outside and heard my neighbour who I nicknamed ‘Don’ calling for help.

“He was calling me ‘kaaka help me, help me’.”

Mr Chandra was first at the scene but struggled to help as the heat from the fire was too strong to save the rest of the family.

He held back tears as he recalled the desperate cries for help.

“Don was calling out for help. I tried, but the fire was too big,” he said.

Mr Chandra has been living in the area for more than 50 years with his family of three children.

He was born and raised at Varoko Village in Ba before moving to Baulevu, Naitasiri.

He had a good relationship with his late neighbour, often sharing meals together and celebrating special events such as birthdays.

“His three year – old daughter would come around at home, or we would go together to the farm and come back. We had a good relationship like families sharing good times together.”

A police statement confirmed a report was received of the fire incident after midnight, whereby police and National Fire Authority (NFA) officers were deployed to the scene.

The cause of fire remains to be determined as joint investigations are underway by police and NFA.