A fire broke out at the fourth floor of the southeast block of the parliament building at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area in Dhaka on Wednesday morning.
On information, firefighters rushed to the spot and put out the flames, senior secretary of the Parliament Secretariat Ashraful Makbul confirmed to Prothom Alo.
All the furniture and documents of the room number 433 of the southeast block were burnt in fire. The room is being used as the office room of Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed’s personal secretary (PS).
Duty officer of the fire service control room Shahzadi Sultana told Prothom Alo that the fire originated from a short circuit.
“We were informed of the fire through a telephone call at about 8:32am. Later, four firefighting units went to the spot and put out the blaze at about 8:50am,” she said.
She said that the extent of damage due to the fire would be ascertained after an investigation into the incident.
During a visit to the damaged room, it was found that the sofa, table chair, oven, computer, bookshelf and other documents of the room were burnt in the fire.
The fire also burned the carpet of the next room (room number 432) Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed uses as his office room. The computer monitor and documents of the fifth floor were also damaged due to heat caused by the fire.
Executive engineer (power) of the Public Works Department Ziaul Hassan said that the fire might have originated from a short circuit. He said that the fans or the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) device of the computer in the room might have remained switched on.
Ziaur Rahman, an official at the control room of the Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD), toldProthom Alo that the fire broke out at about 8:30am. Several firefighting units rushed to the spot on information and put out the blaze.
Masud Ahmed, a firefighter of Mohammadpur Fire Station, said: “Two firefighting units of Mohammadpur Fire Station and another two units of Tejgaon Fire Station went to the spot soon after the fire broke out. We managed to put out the flame soon.”
Source: Prothom Alo
