Hotel owner held over Chawkbazar fire

Police have arrested the owner of Barishal Hotel. The Chawkbazar fire in Lalbagh area on Monday apparently started from this restaurant.

Fakhrul Islam was arrested from his Lalbagh residence on Tuesday, said Rajib Kumar, sub-inspector of Lalbagh police station.

The sub-inspector said they arrested Fakhrul on charge of careless storage of gas cylinders at the restaurant.

A plastic factory caught fire in Chawkbazar on Monday, leaving six people dead. Police initially assumed that a cylinder explosion at the Barishal restaurant on the building's ground floor sparked the fire. All the deceased were workers of the restaurant.

Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said some six people died in the fire while they managed to recover three bodies.

Col Zillur Rahman, director (operations) of Fire Service, said their initial assumption is that the fire originated from Barishal Hotel on the ground floor.

He also said the building, in addition to the adjacent ones, was not constructed following rules and regulations. This is why they struggled to bring the blaze under control.