STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Firefighters brought a raging fire under control yesterday nearly 12 hours after it broke out at a 10-storey building in the Ambagicha area of Dhaka’s Keraniganj.

No casualties were reported in the incident. However, business owners suffered significant losses as the blaze gutted clothes, garment raw materials, yarn, and jhut (waste fabric) stored in the basement and the market section on the first two floors of the building.

The blaze was reported at 5:37am yesterday and was finally brought under control at 5:03pm by 20 firefighting units, said Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director (Operation and Maintenance) of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

He added that 45 people were rescued from the building, while other residents evacuated on their own.

The fire is suspected to have originated in the basement, which served as a warehouse for jhut and garment raw materials and accommodated many shops.

Around noon, shop employees and volunteers were seen retrieving goods from the first and second floors and moving those to the nearby Ambagicha graveyard as the fire was brought under partial control.

“I came soon after the fire broke out at dawn but managed to salvage some goods only after the fire came under control partially around 10:00am,” said Md Bashir, a yarn trader from Raju Enterprise.

Abdus Salam, owner of New Salam & Brothers on the ground floor, said, “I had about Tk 27–28 crore worth of goods in the building and Tk 10-12 lakh in cash in the drawer. All of it has likely been gutted.”

Bangladesh Army, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and Ansar and VDP personnel were seen on the scene controlling the crowd, while volunteers helped traders salvage some of their goods.

Keraniganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Umar Faruk said a five-member committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

No case was filed over the incident as of last night, said Keraniganj South Police Station officer-in-charge Saiful Alam.