Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said that the government decided to recognize 13 firefighters losing their lives in the BM Container Depot fire incident as "Agniveer" or fire heroes.
The minister was speaking at a program at the Fire Service Headquarters in the capital where the fire service received two 68-metre Turntable Ladders (TTL) to extinguish fire up to 24-storey buildings.
The minister formally inaugurated the power-operated extending ladders and said that a total of five tallest ladders would be added to the Fire Service, of which two have already been added and the remaining three would arrive soon.
“The new ladders will be used to operate fire and rescue activities from the 24-storey buildings. Through this, the government has strengthened the capacity of the fire service department,” he was quoted as saying by BSS.
During the devastating fire at Bashundhara Shopping Mall in 2009, the Fire Service had only a ladder which could reach up to the ninth floor, Kamal said.
Remembering the sacrifice of the 13 martyred firefighters in the depot fire incident, the minister said that firefighters have proved that they did not hesitate to risk their lives when there was a crisis.
On June 4 this year, at least 49 people were killed and over 450 injured in the fire caused by an explosion at the BM Container Depot in Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong.
The deaths of 13 firefighters – the highest fatalities in a single fire incident – were due to the lack of proper information and also the wrong way of operating, officials said.
Meanwhile, Suman Banik, the officer-in-charge (investigation) at the Sitakunda model police station, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that 11 bodies were yet to be identified from the fire incident as the law enforcers had not got the results of DNA tests.
The OC, who is also the investigation officer in the case filed over the fire incident, said that all related laboratory reports were ready but the print copy was yet to reach them.
Furthermore, he said that the investigators were scrutinizing the identities and tracking down the locations of the eight accused in the case.
He mentioned that no one was arrested over the fire incident as the accused went into hiding.
