20150315 Bangladesh Motijheel fire extinguished
Bangladesh Mar 15 2015 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Motijheel fire extinguished
Updated: 2015-03-15-12:02
A fire that engulfed a multi-storey building at Dhaka’s commercial hub Motijheel has been put out after 14 hours, a fire service official has said.
The cause of the fire remains unclear but no casualty was reported.
Fire Service official Shahjadi Sultana said 13 fire-fighting units managed to put out the flames at about 5:40am on Sunday.
The fire was first reported on the first floor of the six-storey building on Saturday afternoon at the office of Bangladesh Industrial Finance Corporation (BIFC).
Everything except a vault was gutted, Senior Principal Officer Hasina Jannat told bdnews24.com. “The vault had some loan papers and cheque books. Every other document went up in flames.”
BIFC Chief Financial Officer Ahsanul Bari said they hosted a recruitment test at the office on Saturday. They left around12:45pm.
It quickly spread to the floor above, where offices of the Al Arafah Islami Bank were situated.
A section of the bank’s principal branch, which was on the second floor, was burnt, bank officials said. Its offices on the ground floor were also damaged.
The branch remained closed on Sunday.
The building’s manager, Raku Ahmed, said the building owner, Humayun Kabir, is the chairman of Modhumoti Bank.
He added, “We suspect the fire may have been caused by an electrical short-circuit.”
The fire service has formed a committee ascertain the cause of the fire and find out why it took so long to put it out.
Shahjadi Sultana said the five-member committee, led by Dhaka fire service deputy director Nurul Haque.
A firefighter told bdnews24.com on Saturday thick smoke impeded their operation and described the fire as being “mysterious”.
“We suspect there were inflammable objects,” he added, declining to be identified.
Dhaka District Fire Service Assistant Director Rafiqul Islam felt sick from the fumes during the operation and was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Web Source: Bdnews24.com
http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/03/15/motijheel-fire-extinguished