Chemicals fuelled Chawk Bazar fire, devastation: probe body

Chemicals fuelled Chawk Bazar fire, devastation: probe body

Chemicals stored on the first floor of Wahed Mansion at Chawk Bazar augmented the fire many times, which killed at least 67 people and injured scores in old Dhaka Wednesday night, said Dhaka South City Corporation probe body members on Friday.

‘The fire was probably triggered by a cylinder blast, but perfume canisters stored on different floors of the building increased it many times,’ said Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and also probe committee member.

Fire service officials, however, claimed that 70 people were killed, 41 admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and scores were injured in the fire which damaged at least six buildings. 

The fire service officials on Friday found hundreds of containers and packets of highly flammable chemicals kept illegally at the basement of Wahed Mansion.

A Fire Service team entered the basement of the residential house by breaking the lock and found the huge storage.‘If the fire reached the basement and touched the chemicals, the extent of losses from the fire would be greater,’ said fire service Lalbagh station officer Ratan Kumar Debnath.The fire, primarily suspected to have originated from an explosion in a pickup van, quickly turned into a blaze and engulfed the nearby buildings that housed various chemical warehouses on Nanda Kumar Datta Lane.

LPG cylinders of restaurants and CNG cylinders of vehicles parked there went off in no time adding to the raging fire, survivors said. They said they heard sounds of repeated blasts during the fire, also fuelled by perfume canisters stored in the building that caught fire first. 

The fire incident took place only two days after Dhaka South City Corporation started renewing trade licences for chemical businesses five years after it was suspended following old Dhaka’s Nimtoli fire which killed 124 and injured 200 in June 2010.

The victims include residents of the buildings, physicians, their patients, shopkeepers, their clients and even passers-by and passengers of rickshaws who got trapped in the fire which engulfed the whole area within a very short time, survivors, witnesses and victims’ relatives said.Many shopkeepers and their clients tried in vain to save their lives by closing shutters of their shops. Witnesses said that the fire originated from a pick-up van cylinder blast in front of Haji Wahed Mansion at Churihatta on Nanda Kumar Dutta Lane around 10:20pm and it spread quickly as some other cylinders and chemical depots exploded.

Fire service director general Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan said that death toll increased as the people could not escape the spot for the quick spread of fire because of chemicals on the second floor of the building.He said the fire was put out after nine hours of frantic efforts by at least 37 fire fighting units from 13 stations.

Additional divisional commissioner of Dhaka Md Selim Reza said that at least 67 people were killed in the incident.Dhaka Medical College Hospital officials said that they handed over 46 bodies after relatives of the dead identified their dear ones.People were seen looking for their relatives as scores of people still remained missing though rescue operation was officially ended at 12:30pm on Thursday.

Dhaka south city mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon at the operation monitoring cell on the spot declared the end of rescue operation and said at least 70 people were killed and 41 injured were given treatment at DMCH.A survivor, Mohammad Selim, a worker in a mirror factory, at DHMC said, ‘I was walking back to home around 10:30pm through the street.

All of a sudden I heard the sound of many explosions. Some fireballs hit me on the back.

I fell down on the road; I saw the electric polls before me also getting started collapsing. The fire engulfed the body of woman and a girl and their rickshaw-puller before me, they probably died on the spot.’ Another survivor Mohammad Salahuddin said that he was going home with his brother-in-law by a rickshaw during the incident.‘Chemical jars were exploding in the upper floor, and fireball was hitting the road.

I saw bodies burning all over the road. I started running and saw at least two people collapsing on the street. Our rickshaw-puller also collapsed,’ he said.

Thousands of body spry bottles, sacks of plastic raw materials, two private cars, two bikes and two pick-up vans were seen burnt on the road.Fire service DG Ali Ahmed said that most of the bodies were recovered from shops under the buildings and they were too chard to be identified.At least six buildings housing markets and chemical and plastic warehouses were damaged by the fire.

Four-storey Hazi Wahed Mansion, six-storey Motin Villa and two other four-storey buildings were completely burnt while another two buildings were damaged partially. Bangladesh Red Crescent Society has prepared a list of 51 people missing since the incident.Local people alleged that fire service started rescue operation too late around 1:30am on Thursday. 

Fire DG told New Age that fire-fighters struggled to put out flames and casualties were high as flammable chemicals were stored in different floors of the multi-storey buildings.President Md Abdul Hamid and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in separate messages expressed condolences for the dead and sympathy for the bereaved families. 

At least five probe bodies were formed by fire service, home ministry, Department of Explosives, Dhaka South City Corporation and National Human Rights Commission to investigate the incident.

DSCC probe committee members, after visiting the spot on Friday, said perfume canisters stored on two floors of Wahed Mansion helped the fire spread out to the nearby buildings.A case was lodged with Chawak Bazar Police Station against 10 to 12 people including Hasan and Sohel, owners of an affected building that housed an illegal chemical warehouse, for causing deaths and damage due to their negligence, said Chawak Bazar officer-in-charge Shamimur Rashid Talukder.

Md Ashif, whose father was killed in the inferno, lodged the case.DSCC on Friday cleaned the burnt remains and debris from the roads where the fire had broken out. Special prayers were offered at different mosques during jumma prayers and temples on Friday for eternal peace of the departed souls of the victims.

The fire brings back to mind the devastating blaze that had broken out at Nimtoli in the old town on June 3 in 2010 killing 124 people and injuring 200 others.Originated from a stove in a building housing combustible chemical depot, the fire then spread to eight residential buildings and 20 shops rapidly. Following the fire, experts had asked the government to relocate the chemical warehouses and concerns but the authorities did not pay heed.

Rather, DSCC mayor Sayeed Khokon on February 12 had announced that the trade licences for chemical businesses based in old Dhaka would be renewed from February 19. On the first day, at least five businesses out 1,900 units, renewed their trade licence after five years of ban.