81 dead as fire rips through Dhaka’s apartment blocks
Inferno in historic district of Bangladesh capital leaves residents in shock
Hundreds of firefighters who took almost 12 hours to bring the fire under control went through the blackened floors of the building, littered with spray cans, looking for bodies.
“We found 24 bodies in one corner of a building and another nine bodies at a pharmacy where the shutters were down,” firefighter Shariful Islam said at the scene.
“They thought they would survive by bringing down the shutters.”
The fire started late Wednesday night in the Chawkbazar trading district in the old Mughal part of the capital.
Bangladesh fire chief Ali Ahmed said the blaze may have been started by a gas cylinder and quickly spread because of the chemicals stored in rooms alongside the apartments.
Authorities promised a crackdown after a similar blaze in 2010, in an old Dhaka building also used as a chemical warehouse, that killed more than 120 people. But no effective action was taken, according to critics.
“After the warehouse owners, the city corporation and the law enforcers are mainly to blame for this,” said Abu Naser Khan, head of the POBO citizens lobby group.
Chemicals were also stored in the nearby buildings which exploded in a chain as the fire spread.
“It spread so quickly that people could not escape,” the fire chief said.
Fire trucks had struggled in the narrow streets to reach the scene and there was a lack of water for the battle, officials said.
The main gate of one five-story building was also chained up, trapping residents inside, according to images shown on Bangladesh television.
Members of a bridal party in a nearby community center were caught in the fire and many were injured along with customers in small restaurants, police said.
“I saw the charred body of a woman who was holding her daughter in her lap as their rickshaw was caught in the fire,” said one witness.
Hajji Abdul Kader, whose shop was destroyed, survived the blaze as as he had left to go to a pharmacy. “When I was at the pharmacy, I heard a big bang. I turned back and saw the whole street, which was jam packed with cars and rickshaws, in flames. Flames were everywhere,” he said.