Staff Correspondent
At least 13 people were burnt to death in a devastating fire that broke out at a multi storied building Nasim Plaza near the Soni Cinema Hall in the capital's Mirpur on Saturday evening.
Officials of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) however reported 13 deaths in the fire incident that broke out at Nasim Plaza near Sony Cinema at about 5:25pm. The building houses a number of ready-made garment factories. Witnesses, however, feared that the death toll could rise.
On information, 20 fire fighting units rushed to the spot and doused the flames after two hours of frantic efforts.
Bodies of two women and a man were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). The rest five bodies were taken to Mirpur Police Station, Four severely burnt victims were admitted to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the DMCH on Saturday afternoon, said Fire Service Operation Officer Maj Shakil.
Two security guards of the market were also admitted to the hospital with severe burn injuries, said Mazabur Rahman, a security staff of the market who took them to the hospital.
The injured are Kamal Hossain, 35, and Touhidul Islam, 50. They are the members of Reza Security Company, he said. The fire broke out at the plastic factory Bangladesh Epco Ltd at 5:25pm on Saturday, said the security guard.
The fire originated from the blast of a transformer located on the ground floor of the factory, he said, adding the factory produces one time use plastic items. Some 62 workers are employed in the factory in two shifts, consisting 31 workers in each shift.
On Saturday, there were some 50 to 60 people including officials inside the factory. Of them, there were 12 to 13 women and the rest of them were men. "It is primarily learnt that the fire originated from a boiler explosion of the factory," the Fire Service official told The Daily Observer.
Selim Uz Zaman Officer-in-Charge of Dar-us-Salam Police Station told this correspondent that fire fighters told him that eight people had been killed.