At least 43 people were killed and dozens injured after a fire ripped through a seven-story building in an exclusive neighborhood of Bangladesh's capital on Thursday night, February 29.
First modification:
2 min
“So far, 43 people have died due to the fire” in a commercial building in Dhaka, the country's capital, Bangladesh Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen told AFP.
The minister specified that the bodies of 33 of the deceased were in the facilities of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, while the remaining 10 confirmed so far were in the headquarters of the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery.
Fire department official Mohammad Shihab said the fire originated in a popular Dhaka restaurant at 9:50 p.m. on Thursday and quickly spread to the upper floors, trapping dozens of people.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, the fire department rescued about 75 people, 42 of them unconscious, who were on the roof and in other spaces of the seven-story building.
“We were on the sixth floor when we first saw the smoke. Many people ran up the stairs. We used a water pipe to get down from the building. Some of us were injured when we jumped,” said the manager of one of the restaurants.
Others were trapped on the roof and called for help.
“We are sending all the women and children, including my wife and children. All the men are on the roof. The fire service is by our side. Fifty have not been taken down yet,” wrote Kamruzzaman Majumdar, professor of environmental sciences , in a message on Facebook. He was later rescued safe and sound.
Another survivor, Mohammad Altaf, said he narrowly escaped the fire through a broken window. Two of his co-workers died.
“When the fire started in the front and broke the glass, our cashier and military managed to get everyone out. But my two colleagues died later. I went to the kitchen, broke a window and jumped out to save myself,” Altaf said.
The director of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, Brigadier General Main Uddin, indicated that the fire could have originated from a gas leak or a stove. “It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the stairs,” he added.
Fires in apartment buildings and industrial complexes are common in Bangladesh due to lax enforcement of safety standards.
In July 2021, at least 52 people died, including many children, when a fire swept through a food processing factory.
In February 2019, 70 people died when an inferno ripped through several apartment blocks in Dhaka.
With EFE, Reuters and AFP
#dead #building #fire #Bangladesh #capital