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5 years ago

No more dawdling over relocation of chemical inventories

Locals, campaigners urge authorities

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Charred refill cans of highly inflammable butane gas and perfumes lying on the first floor of a five-storey building at Churihatta of Chawkbazar in the city after Wednesday night's fire — FE photo by KAZ Sumon

Relocating chemical inventories from old Dhaka got a renewed urgency after Wednesday's devastating fire in Chawkbazar that killed at least 67 people.

Locals and environmental groups pressed home the demand on Friday, saying they do not want to see the recurrence of tragedies anymore.

"We don't want to see any further tragedy," said Md. Joni who works for a shoe factory in the area.

"We experienced Nimtoli in 2010 and now Chawkbazar. How many lives are required to shift these chemical stuffs from here?" he asked. "Please allow us to survive."

Mr Joni was gossiping with friends at a nearby-saloon when the fire broke out.

He initially thought terror attack ahead of the International Mother Language Day because of the sounds of successive explosions.

"I was looking up the building to find if there are any terrorists. When I looked at the Wahed Mansion, I saw the whole building and its adjacent areas on fire. It was horrible," he said.

Once the flame came under control, he found the burnt body of his uncle, Joynal Abedin Babul, he said.

Environmental campaigners said the disaster happened due to the government's inaction.

"This tragedy would not have recurred had the administration or the city corporation done what many urban planners suggested or prescribed after the Nimtoli incident," said chairman of the Poribesh Bachao Andolon Abu Naser Khan said.

He said despite an order from the high court and directive from the Prime Minister, the local administration didn't relocate the chemical warehouses.

"There were expired gas cylinders, decades-old transformers, chemicals and other flammable materials. All elements caused the disaster," he added.

Old Dhaka houses an estimated 1,000 chemical factories, of which 850 are illegal, according to the PoBA, the campaign group.

Meanwhile, officials came up with different reasons. The devastating fire in old Dhaka's Chawkbazar was triggered by a chain effect, said fire service officials.

They said the fire in the city's densely-populated commercial areas could originate from a source- explosion of gas cylinder, electric transformer or chemical warehouses but the primary source helped other sources react creating a chain of fire.

"I don't know the key source of fire but there were electric transformers, gas cylinders and highly flammable materials, director general of the Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD) Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan said on Friday.

"What we can say is that once the fire erupted from a source, it left a chain of fire, which is very dangerous," he added.

On several occasions, he said they alerted agencies like Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), the Department of Explosives and relevant ministries of the possible dangers of housing combustible chemicals in densely-populated areas such as Nimtoli and Chawkbazar.

But none of the state agencies took the matter seriously, which resulted in yet another "manmade disaster" in the Old Dhaka, said the fire service boss.

He said fire fighters struggled much to reach the spot because of the narrow approach road and this delayed fire response.

Official death toll from the deadly fire reached 67 with some people remaining missing while several others sustained critical burn injuries, fighting for life in hospitals.

The fire, which is believed to be fuelled by highly flammable chemicals, turned the capital's bustling commercial area into a dead zone within seconds, giving people no time to escape.

Witnesses said dozens of people were trapped in buildings, shops, rickshaws, bikes, cars in the jam-packed narrow lane as the fire spread quickly, accelerated by highly-combustible stores of chemicals, perfumes and plastic granules stored at the site.

The raging inferno charred them all within a few seconds, they said.

Javed Hossain Minto along with his 14-year-old nephew was handling customers at Mannan grocery store located around 100 metres of the spot when the fire occurred.

At around 10:15pm, his nephew started screaming "fire, fire" and he thought he might be joking, Mr Minto said.

"I heard a sound of explosion and looked back. I saw a car went up around 10-12 feet. Then I saw fire raging towards me and I ducked quickly and ran out of the store," he said.

"It was like shooting of an action movie. The fire spread very quickly. The inferno engulfed the whole area in less than 15 seconds, burning people, vehicles, shops and valuables into ashes," he noted.

Of the deceased, 46 have so far been handed over to the family members after proper identification while the identities of 21 others could not be ascertained until filing of the report at about 8:20pm.

Forensic department of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) preserved DNA samples of the unidentified bodies and asked families to communicate with the agency to take the bodies if samples are matched.

Many of the bodies were buried at the Azimpur Graveyard while some were taken to their respective home districts.

Nine critically injured persons were admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

Industries minister Nurul Mazid Mahmud Humayun, who visited the area on Thursday, blamed the explosion of gas cylinder from a car for the tragedy.

The ministry formed a 12-member probe team to investigate the incident, he said.

While visiting the place, the FE correspondent found gas cylinders of the burnt vehicles undamaged inside and burnt containers of body spray, gas lighter refill, sacks of plastic pieces, and chemicals were seen scattered here and there.

The basement of the ravaged Wahed Mansion was found full of drums and sacks containing chemicals.

Talking to the FE, a fireman said the fire did not reach the ground floor because of the quick intervention of the firefighters. "Otherwise, it would have been much horrific," he added.

Chief inspector of the department of explosives, Md Shamsul Alam said the fire might have originated from either explosion of gas cylinder or electric transformers or chemical stuffs.

He said they removed gas cylinder explosion from their list of possible cause as those were found undamaged in the vehicles parked there during the flame.

"It could cause either from blast in the transformer in front of the Wahed Mansion or the chemical godowns. We need to investigate it properly," he said.

When asked on what ground the department allowed chemical storage in the residential area, he said the chemical (the plastic pieces) was used in producing consumer goods and they were not giving licences to them.

He said the Dhaka South City Corporation with other stakeholders including department of fire and explosive last week decided to launch a drive against such chemical base.

"We planned to start the drives from tomorrow (Sunday) next but the incident happened before it," he added.

Three probe bodies were formed to investigate the incident.

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