The exact reason behind a devastating fire that destroyed valuables worth of millions at North South University campus on Sunday night is yet to be determined, a senior official of the university said. Classes are suspended until Saturday, June 29.
"The exact cause is not yet confirmed," said NSU Project Director Mushtaque Habib in an interview with the Dhaka Tribune.
Mushtaque, who is responsible for the design, building and maintenance of the NSU campus, speculates it may have been a short circuit at the electrical control distribution panels.
The electrical fire at the North South University (NSU) campus on Sunday night persisted for five hours from 8:30pm-2:30am. The fire did not spread beyond the basement, which houses NSU’s electrical power center. There were no casualties.
When classes resume, all buildings would be reopened, administration sources said, adding that any lost class time would be made up on weekends, and that the semester would not need to be extended.
NSU currently has no electricity, and classes have been suspended while the administration puts in place an interim solution for power: diesel generators, at considerable expense.
“Monetary losses are recoverable. We are focused on minimising the non-recoverable cost of the students’ classroom time,” Mushtaque said.
For the next eight to twelve weeks, NSU will operate with the essentials: lights and fans, and computers in classrooms and offices.
During this time, the administration will bring their primary power source, a gas-powered captive generator, back online, along with CCTV monitoring, Mushtaque said.
“The VC Amin Uddin Sarkar, the Chairman of the Board Ragib Ali, and the other board members, have been very actively involved in the power restoration process,” Mustaque said. “They are fully committed to bringing back full power generation as soon as possible.”
The fire began at around 8:30pm in the third-level basement under northeast corner of the building, 33ft below the auditorium. Firefighters rushed to the scene.
“Fortunately, we were able to save the generators,” Mushtaque said. “Around 2am, we drilled holes directly above them so that firefighters could douse the area around it.”
“There were no huge flames,” Mushtaque said. “What we did see was a lot of toxic black smoke, caused by the burning PVC insulation of the electrical cables. That was the challenge. The black smoke made it hard to see into the basement.”
He added that the toxic air was contained to the basement only, and would not affect students when classes reopened.
“We would not restart classes if there were any safety issues,” Mushtaque said.