A four-year-old boy was killed, a woman sustained injuries while at least 70 shanties burnt to ashes after a fire broke out at a slum adjacent to the Islamic Foundation office in the capital’s Agargaon yesterday.
Asma Begum, mother of the deceased named Sajib, said she had gone to a nearby shanty leaving him inside the house sleeping. Seeing the fire that broke out around 11:25am she came back but found her shanty burnt down.
Sajib’s grandmother Anwara Begum said she had been with the boy when the fire originated. “I came out of the house with some valuables but totally forgot about Sajib.”
Father of the victim Tuhin Shaikh, who is a broker at the Agargaon Passport Office, and sister Akhi were not at home at the time of fire.
Enayet Hossain, officer-in-charge of Fire Service and Civil Defence Control Room, told the Dhaka Tribune that 11 fire-fighting units rushed to the spot after the fire had broken out.
“The fire fighters were able to bring the fire under control around 12:05pm and doused it within the next one hour,” Rafiqul Islam, assistant director of fire service and civil defence, told the Dhaka Tribune adding that around 70 shanties were gutted in the fire.
In primary inspection, they came to know that the fire originated from a kitchen stove, he said.
However, a slum dweller named Shakhawat Adil, who also witnessed the incident, claimed that 100-150 houses had been damaged in the fire. “The fire spread quickly since the shanties, built in a congested manner, were made of bamboo and wood.”
There are over 300 shanties in the slum, according to locals.
Police later sent Sajib’s body to Dhaka Medical College for a post mortem examination.
The Disaster Management and Relief Ministry gave Sajib’s family Tk20,000 and an injured woman Tk5,000.
There were no reports of casualty except for the two since most of the slum dwellers had been staying outside, GG Biswas, OC of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Soon after the incident, local lawmaker Jahangir Kabir Nanak visited the spot.
Mohammad Abdul Wazed, director general of the Disaster Management Department, told the Dhaka Tribune that they would provide Tk3,000 and 20kg rice to each of the affected families around 11am today. The compensation would be provided by the district administration, he added.