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Download PDF A three-year-old boy was burnt alive and around 50 others sustained minor injuries when a devastating fire broke out at a slum in Mohakhali in the city yesterday.
Some 200 shanties were reduced to ashes in the blaze that started at about 11:00am at the C&B Taltala Staff Quarters slum and spread rapidly throughout the slum, mostly populated by garment workers and people from low-income group.
Informed, 14 firefighting units rushed to the spot and managed to douse the fire at around 2:00pm. They also pulled out the charred body of Shanto from the debris.
His garment worker mother Munni Begum and CNG autorickshaw driver father Abul Hossain had left about their work, leaving the child under the care of his 63-year-old maternal grandfather Fazlul Haque Biswas.
A grief-stricken Munni, who works at a garment factory some 100 metres away from the slum, said that she saw the smoke through the window, but could not reach the spot quick enough as she had to obtain the supervisor’s permission first to leave.
“When finally I got there, my son was already dead,” she said sitting at a distance from the body, as she could not bear to see her son’s charred face.
Neither the fire fighters nor the residents could say how the fire had originated. Some suspected arson by either of the two feuding groups trying to establish dominance over the area.
Most women of the slum are garment workers and were out when the fire broke out. They could not save any of their household goods.
The locals said that 18 fourth-class employees of Bangladesh Roads and Highways Department (RHD) living at the place built 10 to 15 tin shed houses each and rented them out.
Alan G Biggs, disaster management delegate, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Bangladesh Delegation, told The Daily Star that they have allotted one family kit and a blanket for each of the families who had lost everything in the fire.
KHULNA
At least 100 shops were gutted in a fire at Bagerhat Boro Bazar under Bagerhat Sadar yesterday.
The blaze destroyed consumer goods worth over Tk 2 crore, Bagerhat Banik Samity claimed.
Firemen from Bagerhat and Khulna Fire Services put out the fire at around 6:30am.
Neither Bagerhat district administration nor the Fire Service Department could confirm how the fire originated as of yesterday evening.
According to Bagerhat Police Super Shahidur Rahman, the fire started in a storeroom of a coconut oil factory and spread to adjacent shops rapidly.
The Bagerhat deputy commissioner initiated a probe to determine the cause of fire.
Chittagong
Some 14 small godowns and shops loaded with basic commodities were completely gutted in a devastating fire at Chaktai, a traditional business hub of the port city, under Kotwali Police Station early yesterday.
The loss of properties and goods was primarily estimated at Tk 15 lakh, reports our staff correspondent from Chittagong.
Sources said that the fire that broke out at around 3:30am, originated due to an electric short circuit at Purna Laxmi Store of Gobinda Shikder at Bhanga Pool in Chaktai and engulfed other adjacent shops and godowns fast.
Informed, eight units of the fire brigade rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze at around 6.00am.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:20 am
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