20241226 Secretariat fire completely extinguished after 10 hours
Bangladesh Dec 26 2024 “Apartment houses”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Secretariat fire completely extinguished after 10 hours
Updated: 2024-12-26
Nearly ten hours after it first sparked, the fire at Building No. 7 of the Secretariat – the nerve centre of Bangladesh’s administration – has been extinguished completely.
The combined effort by 19 firefighting units was able to bring the flames under control around 8:05am on Thursday, but it took until 11:45am for them to be put out, according to Fire Service official Talha Bin Jashim.
Brig Gen Muhammad Jahed Kamal, director general of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence, held a press briefing on the blaze around 6:45am on Thursday.
“We received a report around 1:52am that a fire had broken out at building No. 7 of the Secretariat. Our firefighting units reached the scene by 1:54am.
“As of now, 19 units have been dispatched here and 10 of them are working directly (to douse the fire). There are some limitations for the large vehicles to enter the area,” Brig Gen Kamal told the media five hours after the fire broke out.”
He said the firefighters had to break two front gates to let fire trucks enter the area.
A firefighter – Md Soanur Zaman Nayan – was crossing the road in an attempt to connect a water hose when he was rammed by a truck and critically injured. The truck then rushed off.
He was then taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead. Police have since detained truck driver Belal Hossain Sumon and his assistant Farhad – identified by a single name – over the incident, said Mohammad Khalid Mansur of Shahbagh Police Station.
The building No. 7 of the Secretariat houses several important offices on its 10 floors. Even when the head of government works from the Secretariat, they use an office in this building.
The offices of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Division and the Ministry of Youth and Sports are also located in the nine-storey bloc.
The fire sparked many discussions on social media, with many suspecting foul play as the blaze tore through the rooms of the important state institution. Some questioned whether it was an attempt by the deposed Awami League government to ‘destroy proof of their corruption’.
Home Minister Jahangir Alam Chowdhury says whether the fire was an act of sabotage could only be determined after an investigation.
Speaking at the Secretariat on Thursday morning, he said that a high-powered investigation committee had been formed to look into the matter and the Cabinet secretary and secretary of home affairs had been sent instructions accordingly.
Asked whether there was any conspiracy behind the incident, he said: “I cannot say before an investigation is conducted. We will let you know once the investigation is complete.”
Web Source Bdnews24