A massive fire yesterday gutted more than 700 shanties in a slum in Dhaka’s Badda area, but there have been no reports of any human casualties.
Firefighters said the fire started around 1:50pm and it was brought under control at 5pm, but they could not immediately say what sparked it or the figure of damage caused. A committee has been formed to find out more about these matters.
Although the authorities did not receive any missing person report, some people claimed that had not seen some of their family members since the fire. Most of the tenants survived the inferno because they were away at their village homes on Eid vacation.
The fire that raged over the slum for nearly four hours turned the 700-800 shanties into ashes. Only the bamboos, that were the pillars, could be seen after the fire was doused.
The slum, known as Bhai Bhai Boarding, was built on a big pond opposite to the Lion Eye Hospital. The shanties had wooden floors and bamboo fences.
The blaze also damaged several floors of the adjacent high-rise buildings. The slum is owned by a family of five brothers who live in and also own these high-rise buildings.
Mehedi Hasan, one of the owners, said that yesterday morning, hours before the fire started, he had seen a person making fuska, a popular street snack, in a mobile rickshaw-van near the slum.
He lives on the second floor of one of the adjacent high-rise buildings and saw from his balcony that the the fire spread from the kerosene stove that the man was using to make fuska.
However, authorities have yet to confirm this and the man who was allegedly making fuska could not be found either.
Some of the residents of the slum who mostly belong to the low-income group said they did not know where they would go now that their house and belongings have been charred.
A woman named Helena Begum could be seen running to and fro at the scene looking for her daughter and grandchildren.
“My daughter Shilpi called me when the fire broke out. She told me that she had been trapped and the heat was becoming unbearable. But I have not found her or her two daughters after the fire has been put out,” Helena said.
Another woman named Rima Akhter was looking for her mother and her infant daughters. She said they were sleeping when the fire broke out and had not found them.
Mohammad Ali, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defense, said firefighters had trouble accessing the place because the road leading to the slum was too narrow for their truck to enter. If the road was broader, they could have doused the fire much earlier, he said.
Local lawmaker Rahmat Ullah said he would try to arrange compensation for the victims by taking a bank loan.
Vehicular movement on the Badda Link Road remained suspended for over an hour when the firefighters were trying to bring the blaze under control.
