HEARTBROKEN Rital Ritika Prasad’s body was covered with burns but the physical pain was nothing compared with the pain of losing her five-month-old son to a deadly house fire that killed three people in Nadele, Sabeto early yesterday morning.

Ms Prasad was overcome with emotions as she watched police officers retrieve the bodies of her son Adrien Ruhan Rai and her elderly in-laws, Bhagwan Dean, 92, and Aqliman Bibi, 87, hours after their eight-bedroom home was destroyed by the blaze.

The 28-year-old mother managed to escape with her two-year-old daughter Namaya Rai and husband Nilesh Rai, 42.

The survivors were sleeping in the house with the victims when they were awoken by the blaze around midnight.

“My husband woke me up and said there was a fire and he told me to take our children outside,” she said.

“My son was sleeping with his father and I was with my daughter. So I thought to grab her first and I would go back inside to get my son.

“When I put my daughter outside she ran back inside so I had to bring her out again and I shouted for my neighbours who came to take my daughter.

“I went back inside but the fire was too hot. I only managed to reach our kitchen. I couldn’t go any further.” Ms Prasad said their desperate attempts to save their youngest was futile against the raging fire.

“We tried from the windows. My husband broke through one of the windows and I grabbed a blanket near the window on my son’s bed.

“I felt a hand and I thought it was my baby’s hand. When I pulled it, it was his teddy bear.”

Her elderly father-in-law was bedridden. “My husband tried his best to save his parents. There was nothing he could do.”

Mr Rai was rushed to the Lautoka Hospital yesterday after sustaining serious injuries in the blaze. Police confirmed a joint investigation with the National Fire Authority had commenced.