As many as 3,000 families have been affected in the massive fire that ravaged several hundred shanties at the Jhilpar slum in Mirpur 7 of Dhaka.
Fire Service and Civil Defence Deputy Director Md Rezaul Karim made the statement at a press briefing from the spot Saturday morning.
"There were 500 to 600 shanties in the slum. We managed to save some of those, but 3,000 families have been affected in the incident," he said.
The Fire Service official said a 5-member probe body would be formed by Saturday to look into the fire incident.
Meanwhile, Fire Service personnel doused the blaze early Saturday that broke out around 7:22pm on Friday.
A number of 24 firefighting units doused the blaze around 1:30am after a frantic 6-hour effort.
No news of death was reported but four people, including a firefighter, were injured in the incident.
The massive fire turned thousands of the lower-income slum residents homeless and left nothing for them other than charred valuables, and despair.
Rezaul Karim said there were combustible substances in the shanties while the gas connection was in a vulnerable condition.
All of these helped the blaze spreading fast to adjacent shanties, he added.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam and State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Enamur Rahman visited the spot on Friday night.
The mayor said with the help of other authorities they would take whatever steps necessary to assist the affected people.
