Prothit Shams, a survivor of the massive fire that took the lives of 46 people in Dhaka’s Bailey Road on Thursday night, thanked the firefighters who saved his life. He took to his Facebook account to express his gratitude to the firefighter team.
In his Facebook status, published on Friday, he said that he was trapped with 20 other people on the eighth floor of the Cozy Cottage building for two hours. As the smoke started to fill up the floor, he started to panic for his life.
“I saw people jumping from the floor above us and what I saw next was just traumatising, people were caught in flames and I could do nothing to help them, at that moment I thought the fire would soon reach us as well. The smoke levels gradually started increasing and I could feel everything inside me burning up. That was when I honestly thought there would be no way out, this was it for me. My life was flashing before my eyes, everything I ever did, everyone I cared about, I was just thinking about them and trying to comprehend what I should do now. I could not remain calm anymore and thus took the decision to call my family to let them know about everything that was going on and tell them where exactly I was situated in the building so that they could pass the information to the fire service,“ he wrote in his timeline.
He soon came up with a method to get to the closest balcony with the help of another individual. They screamed from there amid the black smoke to catch the attention of the firemen who were conducting the rescue operation using a crane.
“Finally they were able to detect us and I never felt this much relief because I was honestly prepared to face death at that point. The two firemen who saved us were the bravest people I ever met in my life, they were so composed and handled us with the utmost care when they were taking us on to the crane. I held that fireman and I just cried and thanked him for saving me.” Prothit added.
At least 46 people were killed, and over 20 others sustained severe injuries by a devastating fire on Thursday night.
Firefighters rescued 70 people, including 42 in unconscious state, from the rooftop and different floors of the seven-storey Green Cozy Cottage.
The fire broke out at around 9:45pm.
Most of the people died as they jumped off the building or from burns or suffocation, said firefighters who brought the fire under control around 12:30am.
Fire officials say the blaze spread fast due to the presence of gas cylinders on several floors in the restaurant kitchens. People could not leave the building due to smoke in the staircase.
