A massive fire has burnt to ashes a boarding house, several shops at a building and more than 100 shanties thrown up on a large pond at Merul Badda.
Frantic locals were driven to panic as flames leapt up and thick smoke billowed out of buildings engulfed by the fire.
The fire originated from a house at Madhyabadda Pushkuniparha in an alley next to Bank Asia and CDCL CNG Station around 12:30pm Monday, Fire Brigade Control Room official Mohammad Ali told bdnews24.com.
The CNG refilling station was dangerously close.
Bhai-Bhai Boarding, a tin-shed lodging, has been burnt to the ground. The 13-Bigha area it was on belongs to local Ward Councillor Osman Gani and his siblings.
“I can’t say how the place caught fire. The shanties along with lodgings made of wood and tin are all gone,” said Gani.
Sixteen fire-fighting units finally brought the flames under control but the heat from the fire was still disconcerting for the locals.
A bdnews24.com correspondent in the area said the two-storey tin structure – Bhai-Bhai Boarding – had been heavily damaged, while the shanties around it are completely gutted.
Panic spread among people in the buildings near the tin-shed house on fire.
The residents of a multi-storey building, Venus Complex, had to be evacuated. One side of Pragati Sarani was temporarily closed to traffic.
The firefighters said they struggled to control the people who were crowding the area to help or watch, which caused significant delay.
Fire service officials could not say if there had been casualties. But a microbus driver, Giashuddin Rana, said he could not find his wife and two daughters.
He found them more than two hours later, he told bdnews24.com.
Helena Begum said her daughter ‘Shilpi’ lived at Bhai-Bhai Boarding with her two sons – 2-year-old ‘Adib’ and 2-month-old ‘Atik’.
Begum, who lives in the nearby slum, said her daughter called her asking for help. She was seen crying near the site after firefighters stopped her from entering.
The bdnews24.com correspondent later saw Helena Begum running with a child in her arms.
When asked if she was able to trace her family, she said, “Yes, thank Allah… I did. They were crying, trapped inside. A man helped them get out of the burning house.”
Monirul Islam, a businessman from the area’s Khan Market, said his employees who lived at the boarding house were able to make a quick exit.
“The dousing got delayed because of the huge crowds and the absence of a water source,” said Fire Brigade Deputy Director Nurul Haque.
“We could have put it out a lot earlier than we did.”
Source: Bd news24
