Dear CD Members, Please pray for this family. You can also donate some money to the charities listed.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=75fc726e-7af3-443d-ba9c-1f732fba9786&k=52739

Parents regret leaving kids home alone
Burning incense blamed for fatal fire

As they did every morning, Ramesh and Shetal Patel lit incense for their daily prayers.

But, as Ramesh drove his wife to work Thursday, all the future family rituals were shattered as the unattended incense ignited nearby materials and filled their basement suite with deadly smoke.

Normally, the parents took their two daughters -- four-year-old Jaymini and six-year-old Payal -- to drop Shetal off, but Payal told her father that she would stay and to let her younger sister sleep.

She would just watch TV, she told them -- she'd be good.

Firefighters found them together in one of the bedrooms. Both died of smoke inhalation.

The Patels were left reeling from the loss, spending Friday with friends who tried to comfort the grieving parents.

"She ate nothing yesterday," friend Anila Malik said of the girls' mother. "She had only a drop of water (Thursday)."

Shetal refused food again Friday, saying she couldn't eat when her own children hadn't had breakfast.

She has been left weak and dehydrated and her doctor has said he will admit her to hospital if she doesn't take nourishment.

As Ramesh and the other men gathered in the main floor living room, the women sat with Shetal, stroking her hair as she cried, sometimes unable to catch her breath as she wailed.

"We didn't know. We didn't know what could happen," she said to no one as she rocked, while one of the women interpreted.

Fire investigators found burning incense left unattended near combustible materials resulted in the fire that caused $55,000 in damage to the home.

"During the investigation, it was determined that there was no smoke detector on the lower level of the bi-level home and the detector on the main level was not operational," said fire department public information officer John Conley.

A woman in her 70s and her grandson, who were upstairs at the time the fire broke out, escaped with minor smoke inhalation.

The home remained encircled by yellow emergency tape Friday, though mourners crossed the line to leave flowers, notes and a teddy bear in memory of the sisters.

Malik and her husband, Hafeez Yousaf, who met the Patel family about two years ago when they first moved to Calgary, remembered Jaymini and Payal as friendly, bubbly girls.

Jaymini liked to rub Malik's pregnant belly and say, "I want a little girl," Malik said.

When Malik was overcome by morning sickness, Jaymini would take her small doll comb and run it through Malik's hair to comfort her.

Yousaf recalled how Jaymini liked to test her knowledge of English by pointing at everything and saying, "Uncle, look at that."

Payal admired Malik's saris, but had none of her own. She would take a cloth and wind it herself in a mock version of the traditional clothing, then show it off, Malik said.

They were shocked when Shetal called around 7:10 a.m. Thursday looking for help, eventually reaching Yousaf on his cellphone.

"She said, 'There's a fire and they can't find my kids," Yousaf said, shaking his head. They later met the Patels at the hospital.

The Patel family attended the wedding of Malik and Yousaf in May. Photographs from the event are almost the only ones left of the girls. Although unable to do a thorough search of the home, it seems only one photo of the sisters -- taken about three weeks ago -- remains

The family had set up a Christmas tree and Payal and Jaymini put presents for their parents under it.

"They were ready for Christmas," said Pastor Paras Persad, a Baptist minister who has reached out to help the Hindu couple since the fire.

They were "getting ready for Christmas and (are) now having to go through this."

Calgarians have reached out to the family. An anonymous donor gave $500 to help offset the cost of the funeral, which will be held Sunday.

In three months, Ramesh and Shetal will return to India with their daughters' remains.

Persad said they will remain in Calgary, though.

"This is home," he said.

This may sound harsh but:

They should not have left two young children attended at home at ALL.
not for 5 minutes not for one minute.
6 year olds are not 'babysitters'- they are not capable of taking care of themselves or younger children !

Its too bad this happened..but really...
This is a tragedy that could have been avoided very easily. The parents are soley to blame and I am having a hard time drumming up sympathy.

If the girls had just been injured, they might have lost custody of their daughters.

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~ Morning rain

Feeling very sorry about Ramesh and Shetal.

"Turn of your Divas and Incense before leaving Home"

This was one of the few advises we got within two days of landing.

Here the houses are using lots of flammable material and having divas and incenses unattented can easily result in fire. In India we typically have concrete houses and so it really doesn't matter much, but here it does.

I have seem many people ingoring this advise. Evenif someone doesn't advises you, this is a very common sense.

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A Proud Indian Canadian