Officials blamed the blazes earlier this week on survivors of the October 8 disaster who had built fires too close to or inside temporary shelters, adding that they expected more such cases as the Himalayan winter intensifies.

"There are around eight burns cases in different hospitals, including two Turkish engineers," Major General Abdul Malik, the health secretary for Pakistani-administered Kashmir, told AFP.

"People are used to burning fires to protect themselves from the cold but they are burning wood inside or very close to the camps," he added.

"They need to realise that they are not in concrete shelters."

The two Turkish seismic engineers were repatriated after being burned in the fires four days ago, Malik said later Friday.

The earthquake killed 73,000 people in Pakistan and left more than 3.5 million homeless. Tent camps have sprung up across the worst-hit areas of northwest Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir.

Turkey was the first country to send quake aid to Pakistan and dozens of its citizens are still in the country helping with relief and rebuilding efforts.

A World Health Organisation official in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's sector of Kashmir, also confirmed there had been a number of burns cases.

"There is no proper burns treatment in Muzaffarabad and the local health authorities are trying to set up one," the official said on condition of anonymity.

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