Offices of five international courier services in Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) were gutted yesterday in a fire caused by an electrical short circuit.
The affected courier services – TNT, DHL, FedEx, Aramex and UPS – were all located in a tin-shed building located near CEPZ main gate, which used to be an office of Bepza, sources at the CEPZ said.
As yesterday was a public holiday, there were no goods stored in the offices, but some official documents and furnitures were damaged in the fire, said officials of the affected courier services, fire service, Bepza, and Industrial Police.
The fire originated in the office of TNT courier service around 11:35am and soon engulfed the other courier offices, said Yahiya Akhter, assistant director at Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Chittagong.
“Notified of the fire, 10 units of fire fighters from EPZ, Bandar and Agrabad fire stations, as well as two units from the nearby Bangladesh Navy base, rushed to the spot and doused the fire around 2:45pm,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Meanwhile, Additional Police Superintendent Tofael Ahmed, deputy director of Chittagong Industrial Police, quoted witnesses saying the building’s electric wires accidentally caught fire when some CEPZ cleaners were burning waste behind the building, resulting in the short circuit.
But Khorshed Alam, general manager at Bepza Chittagong, refuted the witness’ account and said the building, which was built in the 80s, was in a shabby state and its electric wiring might have been damaged, which caused the short circuit and consequently a fire.
“Only the ceiling and electric wires of the building were damaged in the incident, while most of the furniture and other valuables were salvaged ,” he added.
