Deadly fires often started by gas cylinders
Dhaka, Bangladesh:
Bangladeshi firefighters said on Friday that apparent safety lapses were to blame for a fire that killed 45 people at a Dhaka restaurant and that more people who were taken to hospital in critical condition may have died.
Thursday night’s fire started at a popular biryani restaurant on the ground floor of a seven-storey commercial property in the capital’s upmarket neighborhood of Bailey Road.
The entire building, along with several other restaurants, was quickly engulfed in flames and it took firefighters two hours to bring the blaze under control.
The fire was made worse by the large number of cooking gas bottles stored haphazardly in the stairwell and restaurant kitchen, fire department chief Rezar Karim told AFP.
“During the fire, several gas cylinders were heard exploding,” he said.
National Fire Service chief Main Uddin said the building lacked safety measures.
“It didn’t have at least two stairs or fire exits,” he told AFP. “Most people died from suffocation.”
Fire officials earlier told reporters they suspected one of the gas bottles accidentally caught fire, sparking the blaze.
Another person died while being treated in hospital on Friday morning, police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP.
“The death toll currently stands at 45. 15 to 16 injured are in critical condition,” he said.
Members of the public helped firefighters carry hoses and rescue survivors, who climbed down exterior walls to safety as firefighters struggled to control the blaze.
“We were on the sixth floor when we first saw smoke coming from the stairs. A lot of people rushed upstairs,” restaurant manager Sohel, who only gave his first name, told AFP.
“We used hoses to climb down from upstairs. Some of us were injured when we jumped.”
Poor safety record
Kamruzzaman Majumdar, an environmental science professor who was among those trapped, posted on Facebook that at least 50 people were at one point waiting on the roof to be rescued by fire cranes.
On Friday morning, police investigators walked into the destroyed building and documented the wreckage, hours after the government ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Hundreds of anxious family members rushed to the nearby Dhaka Medical College Hospital overnight, and ambulances took the dead and injured to the clinic.
Explosions and fires occur regularly in buildings and factories across Bangladesh, where safety standards are lax and corruption often causes problems to be ignored.
Fatal fires are often started by gas bottles, faulty air conditioners and bad electrical wiring.
The worst fire in Bangladesh occurred in 2012, when a fire broke out in a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing at least 111 people and injuring more than 200 others.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
