Armanitola`s warehouse fire; 4 die, 21 injured

Staff Correspondent: At least four people died and 21 others injured in a fire at a chemical warehouse in the ground floor of a six-storied building in Armanitola area of Old Dhaka early Friday.   The deceased are Rasel, 32, and Waliullah, 50, guards of the building, and residents Sumaiya, 22, and Md Kabir, 40.

Fire service and civil defence headquarters control room duty officer Mahfuz Ripon told New Age that the fire occurred in the chemical warehouse at about 3:15am and 19 fire fighting units brought the fire under control at about 6:00am.  Until 8:00am, he said, two people — Rasel and Sumaiya — were killed and 21 other people, including three fire-fighters, were injured in the fire.  The injured ones were rushed to the Sheikh Hasina Plastic Surgery and Burn Institute and Mitford Hospital in Dhaka for treatment.

After dousing the fire, the rescuers conducted a search in the building and found the bodies of Kabir and Waliullah in a rooftop room of the building at about 11:00am, said Bangshal police officer-in-charge Shahin Fakir on the spot.  He said that the inmates of the building, Musa Mansion, got trapped in their apartments as the building had caught fire and the fire service rescuers rescued them by cutting grills of the apartments.

Fire service officials said that the building had no permission to run any chemical warehouse.  Sheikh Hasina Plastic Surgery and Burn Institute coordinator Dr Samanta Lal Sen said that they had received 21 injured Armanitola fire victims until 9:00am and four of them were taken to intensive care unit of the institute.  He said that not a single one was out of danger as all of them inhaled hot smoke during the fire.