On February 21, a fire was extinguished in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A building in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, caught fire at night on the 20th, spreading rapidly to surrounding buildings. According to Ali Azam, a city official in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the fire has killed at least 81 people and injured dozens of others.
Fire officials initially speculated that the cause of the fire was an explosion of a gas tank that ignited flammable chemicals stored in several buildings and that the number of victims might continue to increase. According to the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh, no casualties of Chinese citizens have been found in the fire.
Bangladeshi fire official Ali Ahmed told reporters that a four-storey building in the old city of Dhaka caught fire at about 22:40 local time on the 20th (0:40 Beijing time on the 21st), possibly because of an explosion of a gas tank. Details are still under investigation.
The streets of the old city of Dhaka are narrow, and the fired buildings are for commercial and residential purposes, only a few meters away from the surrounding buildings. These buildings are equipped with warehouses, which store a large number of flammable chemicals, including sprays and plastic particles. As a result, the fire spread rapidly and it is difficult for the people inside the building to escape.
Bangladesh's Fire Department said earlier Monday that 10 people were killed in the fire; the number continued to climb.
Another fire official told reporters that more than 200 firefighters participated in the fire fighting and the fire was "under control", but it took "time" to completely put out the fire, because a large number of "highly flammable" chemicals were stored in the building, "the fire is different from other fires".
Bangladesh TV showed firefighters standing on a ladder spraying water on a building. Several media reported that firefighters spent more than five hours controlling the fire, and the building was still burning in the early morning of 21.
Dhaka Civil Defense Officer Riben said dozens of people were trapped in the building and could not escape. Search and rescue teams were stepping up their search for survivors and victims.
Sohaj Hussein, a local worker, told the Daily Star of Bangladesh that he was working in a plastic factory in one of the burning buildings. He heard a "huge explosion" on the evening of the 20th, and then tried to escape with two colleagues without success. Search and rescue workers rescued Hussein and his colleagues and sent them to hospital.
Civil Defense Officer Jeffrey Karl Rahman told Reuters that about 50 people were treated in hospitals and some were seriously injured. Hundreds of local residents went to hospitals to find relatives.
Ibrahim Khan, deputy director of the Daka Police Bureau, told reporters that the fire destroyed at least two cars and 10 tricycles. The fire spread at a very fast speed. Several explosions affected "passers-by, guests eating in restaurants and guests attending a bride's premarital party". Several witnesses told AFP that many people attended the bride's party in an activity center near the fire building, and many were burned.
It is not the first time that a large number of casualties have occurred in buildings in the old urban area of Dhaka. On June 3, 2010, a fire broke out in a residential building in the old city, killing more than 120 people and injuring more than 100 people. It is one of the most serious fires in Dhaka.
After the fire, the Dhaka Municipal Government took a series of measures to prohibit the construction of chemical warehouses in residential buildings. Several media reports indicate that the enforcement of these prohibitions has gradually decreased in recent years.
Reuters reported that some enterprises and factories in Bangladesh ignored the safety regulations issued by the government, resulting in a number of major safety incidents.
On the evening of November 24, 2012, a fire broke out at Tazlin Fashion Company, 30 kilometers north of Dhaka, killing at least 120 people. On April 24, 2013, a building on the outskirts of Dhaka that contained a number of garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1100 people. It was one of the most serious building collapses in the South Asian country.
