Abdul Malek, the owner of a shop at New Supermarket – next to Dhaka New Market – said he saw his business go up in flames when a massive fire broke out early Saturday.
Witnessing the flames from the footbridge in front of the market, Malek was inconsolable as he had just stocked up for the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr.
“My shop, my goods, my livelihood – all gone,” he said. “What do I do now?”
Sohag, a college student from Shariatpur, had to Dhaka to make some extra money during the summer. He had been working at a relative's shop at New Supermarket, but the sudden fire took away both the shop and his job.
Shakil, the owner of a makeshift watch shop, left his stocks in a nearby store on Thursday night after a busy day at work.
At around 6am on Saturday, he received a call informing him about the fire.
Rushing to the market, he found that his shop, along with many others, had been completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, Shahadat, a firefighter who was working to extinguish the fire, described the scene as chaotic and dangerous. The smoke was so thick that many of the firefighters were getting sick, and the fire had spread quickly to the second and third floors of the market.
Shop owners and employees have been trying to get the goods out of their shops since the fire broke out.
A shop owner said that there are more than 1,000 shops – mostly clothing stores – in the south building of the market and there are about 500 shops on the first and second floors.
At least 19 people fell sick from the heavy smoke while trying to douse the blaze.
The fire was brought under control around 9:10am. A total of 28 firefighting units and teams from the Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force are still working to douse the fire. Twelve Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) units are also working at the site.
