Five of the victims of the Bayley Road building fire, which killed 46 people on Thursday, were still in critical condition at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery and two in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn unit till Saturday evening.
The institute also released six injured as they were out of danger.
Speaking at the 23rd International Scientific Seminar in Dhaka on Saturday, health and family welfare minister Samanta Lal Sen said that they formed a 17-member medical board for the injured admitted to the institute.
The minister said that the government would bear all expenses of fire injured.
DMCH director Md Nazmul Haque told New Age that two injured were still at the hospital and they were suffering from inhalation injury.
Three more bodies of a family were identified and handed over to their relatives on Saturday, taking to 43 the number of bodies handed over to families, said Ramna police station officer-in-charge Utpal Barua.
The rest three more bodies were kept at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue and they would be handed over after DNA tests, he said.
The police filed a case with the Ramna police station on Saturday and arrested four people in connection with the fire.
The police arrested Chumuk restaurant owners Anwarul Haque and Shafiqur Rahman Rimon and Kacchi Bhai restaurant manager Md Jisan on Friday and affected building Green Cozy Cottage manager Hamimul Haque Bipul on Saturday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Salman Farsi said.
The police official Salman said that the four were produced before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court and the court granted remanded them in police custody for interrogation for two days.
The authorities concerned continued blaming to each other like the previous incidents while the building had no fire safety plan and the restaurants were doing business without taking approval from the Rajdhani Unnyan Kartipakkha and the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
The fire service has served three notices on the building owners on September 3 and 5, 2023 declaring the building risky but took no more action.
Asked why they did not take any action against the building, Fire Service director for operations and maintenance Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury said that they had no enforcement capability as they did not have any magistrate.
‘We cannot operate mobile courts as we have no magistrate. There are Rajdhani Unnyan Kartipakkha and City Corporation and they can ensure enforcement,’ he said.
According to police official Salman, the case was filed accusing four named and several unnamed people of causing death by negligence under section 304(A), attempt to murder under section 307, negligently endangering human life under section 338, mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house under section 436, committing mischief and thereby causing loss or damage under section 427 of the Penal Code.
Urban planners blamed the Rajuk, the Dhaka South City Corporation, and the Fire Service and Civil Defence primarily for the fire that razed the building housing several restaurants, clothing and mobile phone shops, and residential apartments, among others, for two hours between 9:50pm and 11:50pm.
On Saturday, the relatives of the patients were seen waiting for the doctor’s confirmation on their loved one’s condition at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
Khadija Begum, a resident of Basundhara area in the capital, said that her son Anan Kazi, 20, was a survivor who went for dinner at the building.
‘He went up to the sixth floor and found an opening between the stairs and the wall. He could descend to the second floor by holding onto satellite cables,’ said Anan’s mother Khadija.
He then fell from there on the ground, said Khadija.
‘I hope he is out of danger now. He is looking better from the day he was admitted at the hospital,’ she said.
The institution’s resident doctor Toriqul Islam told New Age on Saturday the admitted five people were still critical condition.
‘They are having complications in talking as they have deep injury in inhalation,’ added the resident doctor.
The blaze is believed to have broken out at a coffee shop called Chumuk on the ground floor of the building about 9.50pm and spread to other floors in quick time, leaving little time for the victims to come out.
Thirteen fire-fighting units were joined by the police and other forces to bring the fire under control in about two hours of efforts.
The firefighters could pull out at least 75 people alive while also recovering three bodies from the spot and 42 people in unconscious condition, most of whom were declared dead later after being taken to hospitals.
The health minister called upon the Rajuk and the public works ministry to take stern action to averts future incidents.
Rajuk on Friday formed seven-member probe committee headed by its member development Tonmoy Das and the committee held meeting on Saturday and would visit the spot Sunday.
Rajuk member Tonmoy Das told New Age that they were yet to make any decision on the affected building.
‘We have to submit the report within seven working days,’ he added.
Witnesses said that soon after the fire broke out, an explosion occurred causing a huge flame that blocked the only staircase when several hundred people were enjoying dinners at restaurants offering discounts on leap year on February 29.-New Age
