Essex house fire death toll rises to six

Published on 19/10/2012 00:00

A LITTLE girl who was fighting for life after a house fire that claimed the lives of her mother and four siblings has died.

Maheen Shakoor, three, had been in a critical condition in the burns units at the Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford since being transferred there after the blaze in Harlow, Essex.

Her mother, Sabah Usmani, brothers Sohaib, 11, Muneeb, nine, and Rayyan, six, and 12-year-old sister Hira died in their end-of-terrace house in the early hours of Monday.

Her father, Abdul Shakoor, a doctor, suffered minor injuries as he fought to rescue his family.

A spokesman for the Princess Alexandra Hospital, where Dr Shakoor worked and where Maheen was initially taken, said: “None of us can come close to understanding his suffering and the terrible loss of Maheen, Rayyan, Muneeb, Sohaib, Hira and his wife Sabah.”