Bangladesh
Fire Accident Fire in Chawk Bazar: Four-storey building with at least 25 plastic factories burnt to ashes
Dhaka, December 11: A fire broke out at a plastic factory at Noakhali Bhaban on KB Rudra Road in Old Dhaka's Chawk Bazar area around 3.15 am on Thursday. After a long five-hour effort, 15 units of the Fire Service and Civil Defense brought the fire under control at 8:15 am.
Although there were no casualties in the blaze, at least 25 plastic factories and warehouses in the four-storey building were burnt to ashes. The fire spread panic in the whole area in the middle of the night. The sleeping people of the building ran on the roof to save their lives. People in nearby buildings spent sleepless nights in fear of the fire spreading.
Eyewitness Khokon, a worker of a plastic factory in Noakhali building, said he was sleeping on the fourth floor of the building last night. Late at night he was awakened by the loud sound of an electric transmitter exploding and the screams of the people. He woke up and saw the terrible flames and smoke of the fire in front of the building.
At that time, he and a few others ran up to the roof and jumped on the roof of the next building and fled. From a distance, he saw the burning smell of raw materials being spread from the ground floor to the fourth floor of the building.
He said the building has at least 25 plastic factory raw materials and materials for making materials. There were plastic granules in sacks in the warehouse.
Visiting the Noakhali building at 9:30 am on Friday, it was seen that even though the fire was extinguished, smoke was still coming out from different rooms of the four-storey building. The doors and windows of the building were burnt in the fire. Somewhere the cornice of the roof is broken. There are heavy machines for making plastic materials in different rooms of the building.
On condition of anonymity, some locals said that the building is many years old. Many factory owners are occupying the building without renting it to the owner. Earlier, some influential people wanted to occupy the building.
The fire service could not immediately be reached for comment. The firefighters on duty said it could be ascertained whether the fire was caused by an explosion of an electric transmitter or sabotage.
