Death toll from Mohakhali fire rises to 3

Two more people died in the fire at Khawaja Tower in the capital on Thursday. With this the death toll rises to three.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, 63 and Aklima Rahman, 31. Rafiqul was an engineer by profession. He worked as the project coordinator at a tech firm named Saif Powertec. The office of this company was on the 13th floor of the building. Aklima worked at a call centre on the 9th floor of the building.

Rafiqul was rescued from the building at around 12:15 am and was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where the physicians declared him dead. Aklima was brought to the DMCH at around 1:15 am. Confirming their death, DMCH police outpost inspector Bacchu Mia said that their bodies have been kept at the DMCH morgue.

Earlier, another woman named Hasna Hena, 27, died in the fire. She was the sales-in-charge of an internet service provider named Race Online Limited.

According to the witnesses, she died after falling from the building while trying to get down using an internet wire. She was rescued unconscious at around 6:00 pm and was rushed to Dhaka Metropolitan Hospital where the physician on duty declared her dead.

The fire started at around 4:45 pm in that 14-storey building in the Amtali area of Mohakhali. According to fire service sources, they rushed to the spot and started dousing the fire upon receiving the news. Later, members of Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Ansar and other voluntary organisations joined the rescue operation.

Speaking to the newspersons in a press conference at the spot at around 12:00 am, Brigadier General Md Main Uddin, director general of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence said although the fire had been brought under control, it would take more time to completely extinguish it. Some 10 persons, including three women, were rescued from the building.

The fire service sources said that it is not yet confirmed that the fire broke out on which floor. They are assuming that the fire originated from an electrical short circuit.

The witnesses said people tried to get down from different floors of the building after the fire broke out. Employees of the different offices in that building got off the building through the roof of an adjacent building or using the internet cables.

The members of fire services were seen spraying water from two machines and working on rescuing people trapped inside at around 7:00 pm. Members of the fire service broke the glass walls of the building from the 10th floor to the 14th floor and started extinguishing the fire.

Salman Hossain was on the 12th floor of the Khawaja Tower when the fire broke out. He is the assistant manager of Saif Powertec. He said he was getting down the stairs after hearing the fire alarm. But eventually he could not as smoke was coming out from the floors below. Later, he got back to the 12th floor again. From there he got down using another stair on the back side of the building.

Salman Hossain said, “While getting down, I saw the lift was burning on the fifth floor. That fire spread out to the entire building.”

According to the DMCH sources, five people have been admitted to the Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute with breathing problems.