The Directorate General of Family Planning warehouse in Mohakhali that stored contraceptives intended for HIV and STD prevention programmes has been severely damaged in a fire on Sunday.
The fire broke out at 12:30am and took almost eight hours for firefighters to douse the fire completely. The source of the fire has yet to be determined.
Duty Inspector of the Fire Service Mahmud Hasan said: “The fire was brought under control at 8am with the help of 14 firefighting units.”
Although 14 units arrived at the site at night, only five of them remained from 4am till 8am working to douse the fire.
Officer-in-Charge of Fire Service Headquarters Enayet Hossain said the reason why it took eight hours to douse the fire was because the source of water was far from the warehouse.
“We had to alternate between filling the firetrucks with water and dousing the fire, which is why it took so long to bring it under control,” he said adding the warehouse housed some highly flammable goods including condoms which also exacerbated the problem.
Hanifur Rahman, additional director (drugs and store) of the Directorate, said contraceptives, condoms and other HIV and STD medication was stored at the warehouse for nationwide distribution.
There contraceptives were meant to be distributed in 12 brothels in Bangladesh but were being stored at the warehouse as the National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP) ended in November last year.
HIV activists and NGOs have been demanding the programme be resumed to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among sex workers.
Director General of Health Services Professor Abul Kalam Azad told the Dhaka Tribune that they along with other stakeholders were working on resuming the programme.
Three probe committees have been formed by the Family Planning Ministry and the DGFP to find the cause of the fire and estimate the financial loss from it.
Director General of DGFP Mostafizur Rahman said they formed a five-member committee led by Ferdous Alam, director (IEM) also line director (IEC), to investigate the cause of the fire and another inventory committee was formed under Mohammad Sharif (MCH Services), also line director (MCRAH).
The two committees were asked to submit their reports within five working day, he added.
Meanwhile, ministry sources said they too have formed a five-member probe committee led by Joint Secretary Abdul Maleque which has been asked to submit its report within five working days.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
