Chawkbazar fire: 36 victims identified, 32 bodies handed over to families

A total of 36 deceased, out of 81 killed in the devastating fire at a chemical warehouse in the city’s Chawkbazar area, were identified as of Thursday evening.

Relatives identified them at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue since noon, sources at the hospital said.

Of them, the bodies of 32 were handed over to their families as of 7:30pm.

The identified deceased are Arafat, Shahadat Hossain, Helal Uddin, Enamul Haque Kazi, Mosharraf Hossain, Kamal Hossain, Siddique Ullah, Wasi Uddin, Syed Khabir, Jummon, Ali Hossain, Yamin Khan Roni, Morshed Alam, Mithu, Sajib, Hafez Md Kawsar, Abdur Rahim alias Dulal, Mahir, Sonia, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Imtiaz Imroze Rasu, Masud Rana, Mabubur Rahman Raju, Ashraf Haque Rajan, Omar Faruk, Md Ali, Apu Raihan, Jasim Uddin, Md Raju, Md Nayan Khan, Ayesha Khatun, Anwar Hossain, Siam Arafat, Mojibur Hawladar, Alauddin Mahi and Nur Hossain.

Selim Reza, Additional Divisional Commissioner of Dhaka, said they were gradually handing over the bodies to their relatives.

The government is providing Tk 20,000 for the burial of each deceased, he said. 

At least 81 people were killed and 41 others injured in a devastating fire that broke out at a chemical warehouse and raged through four other adjacent buildings in the city’s Chawkbazar area on Wednesday night. 

Major AKM Shakil Newaz, Director (Operation and Maintenance) of Fire Service and Civil Defence, at a press briefing on the spot in the morning told reporters that a total of 70 bodies were recovered from the buildings.

Besides, 11 others succumbed to their injuries at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), duty officer at the Fire Service Central Control Room Rasel Shikder told UNB around 4:15pm.

Shakil Newaz said 41 people were rescued alive while the flame was doused at 6:30am. A total of 39 units of firefighters took part in extinguishing the fire, according to UNB.