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Fire fighters close to dousing fire 'Chemicals' found atNCTB warehouse

Wasim Bin Habib
Eighty-four hours after a fire broke out; fire fighters with . their relentless effort have come really close to dousing it at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) warehouse atTejgaon.
"The fire is confined to a small area and we are hopeful of dousing it completely by midnight,' Maj Shahjalal, director operations of the fire department, told The Daily Star last night.
Unidentified white chemical was discovered at a corner of the warehouse last night. Maj Shahjalal told The Daily Star the chemical was found close to an exhaust-tan duct between two stacks of paper in the warehouse.
He said tests would be done to determine what it is.
Slag of burnt and wet paper is obstructing firemen from removing the stacks of paper inside the warehouse, he said. Besides, the heavily stuffed warehouse has made it difficult to bring out the un-bumt paper., even with forklifts, he added.
Razia Begum, chief of the enquiry committee formed to investigate the cause of the fire and to ascertain the extent of the damage, also had a look at the chemical and said it certainly would be sent for examination.
The committee was supposed to submit its preliminary' report to the education ministry by yesterday midnight but the committee chief said they were preparing the repon and if the people supposed to receive the report were not available late in the night, they would submit it today.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, who visited the spot twice yesterday, told The Daily Star last night on the spot that the chemical could be evidence of sabotage.
He had earlier said the warehouse indeed suffered extensive damage.
Hundreds of tonnes of paper were gutted and damaged in the fire, smoke and the water used to douse the fire. The warehouse also got damaged," he said adding that they are yet to assess the extent of damage caused by the fire.
The minister, who stayed there for over three hours during his first visit yesterday, said it must be an act sabotage and those who do not want success of the government might have done this.
We are going to distribute free textbooks for the first time and there are many people who do not want big successes of the government," he said.
Asked whether the fire would hamper government's free textbook distribution programme, the minister said, It is obviously hampered it and will make the task tough but we are determined to distribute free books by overcoming such obstacles."
"We work considering that such kind of obstacles would be in our way," he added.
I do not want to say anything on assumption," he said, adding, "We are devastated as it has been done to obstruct our programme. But we will overcome."
NCTB chairman yesterday failed to say how much paper was in (he warehouse, how much of it got damaged or destroyed and how much is still useable.
The fire fighters and NCTB officials said around 67,000 reams of paper were stocked in the depot and over two- thirds of it seems to have been damaged ordestroyed.
Over half of the warehouse has already been cleared of paper. Ashes and damaged paper were being taken away by Dhaka City Corporation garbagetrucks.