Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
MNA National Desk: A massive fire has broken out at a 14-storey building at Badda in Dhaka. The fire service said the fire at the ‘BTI Premier Plaza’, started on Wednesday and took 26 fire-fighting units more than three hours to tame it.
Ataur Rahman, duty officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD) control room, ensured that the fire exploded at the building at about 3:00am.
The building has shops from the ground floor up to third floor, while the rest is housingflats. No fatalities have been reported.
Some residents of the building have been taken to local hospitals due to shock and breathing problems produced by the smoke, said Badda police’s Inspector.
The residents of upper floor apartments went to the roof to protect themselves. More than 200 residents of the building were stranded on the roof till the fires were controlled.
Fire fighters rescued around 120 residents from the rooftop of the plaza after they went up there for safety, he added.
Videos posted by locals on social media exposed flames and smoke coming out of the building. The authorities said that the fire started at equipment shop on the first floor.
Locals spotted the flames, as most of them were awake for the Ramadan ritual of Sahri when the fire broke out. Building inhabitants were evacuated to safety before the fire spread to other floors.
The plaza consists of three interconnected buildings, all 14-storied, and fire engulfed ground to fourth floor of the two buildings, the fire service official said.
However, the reason behind the fire could not be known yet. A five-member committee headed by Mozammel Hossain, deputy director of the FSCD (Dhaka Division), has been formed to investigate the fire incident, said Mijanur Rahman, duty officer of the FSCD control room.
There were several earlier incidents of fire in Dhaka which proved to be very destructive. Taking proper steps to ensure fire safety was always a suggestions from the experts but still there are huge gaps in this area.
