A fire engulfed parts of a high-rise residential complex in Bangladesh capital Dhaka yesterday.
According to an eyewitness, at least two buildings of the residential-cum commercial complex Premier Plaza in Dhaka’s downtown Badda, were affected.
The blaze was under control and no major casualties were reported as the buildings were evacuated, Xinhua news agency reported.
The cause of the fire was
not known yet, said an official.
A five-member committee has been formed to investigate the incident, he said.
“After about five hours of efforts we’ve managed to douse the fire,” said the official.
Meeanwhile, a tailor died from suffocation when a fire broke out at a shopping mall in the port city of Chittagong yesterday.
Md Hasan, 28, was working at a tailor shop situated on the third floor of Central Plaza in GEC area in Chawkbazar, police said.
Sources at fire service said the fire originated from the third floor of the five-storied shopping mall around 8:20am. Fire fighters managed to extinguish the fire by 3pm after seven hours’ frantic efforts.
Mostaque Ahmed Chowdhury, president, Chittagong Central Plaza Traders Association, said there were 18 tailor shops out of total 37 shops on the floor.
“All the shops of the third floor were burnt down. The extent of damage in the fire is more than 20mn taka,” he said.     
Jashim Uddin, deputy assistant director of Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence, said that reason behind the fire could not ascertained immediately.
“As many as 100 firefighters along with volunteers risked their life to put out the blaze. The design of the shopping mall lacked fire safety measures. We had to make frantic efforts to defuse the flame, as there was no water hydrant and fire extinguisher in the market,” said
Jashim.
“The extent loss of the fire is yet to be ascertained. We will form committee to investigate into the fire accident,” added Jashim.
Arefin Jewel, CMP additional deputy commissioner (south), said that the tailors of the supermarket were passing busy time ahead of Eid.