A man was killed and six others were injured when a building partially collapsed due to an ‘explosion that triggered a fire’ in Nitaiganj area of Narayanganj on Saturday morning.
The deceased is Aolad Hossain, 50, a worker who had been working by the side of the building.
The injured ones are Rabi Dutta, 40, Md Hossain, 50, Hazrat Ali, 48, and Md Zakir, 41, Md Billal, 45, and Jagdish Sarkar, 56. All of them are day labourers.
Fire Service and Civil Defence deputy assistant director (media cell) Shahjahan Shikdar said that a fire broke out at the two-storey building in the area at about 9:00am following an explosion.
A part of the building collapsed after the explosion, he said.
On information, six firefighting units rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control after one and a half hours’ efforts.
The reason behind the explosion and the fire could not be known immediately.
Narayanganj fire service deputy assistant director MD Fakhruddin said that the building was declared risky 10 years ago as it might collapse any time.
United News of Bangladesh, quoting Nitaiganj Multilateral Cooperative Society president Abdul Kadir reported that former president of the district’s flour mills owners’ association Illias Dewan is the owner of the building which was used as warehouse of pulse, rice, salt and other products.
The first floor of around 100-year-old building was declared abandoned around 10 years back, the report quoted Kadir as saying.
