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Home Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has said CCTV footage from all departments in Building No. 7 would be reviewed to determine the cause of the devastating fire that broke out in the small hours of Thursday at the Secretariat.
At a press conference held at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on Thursday evening, he said: “Footage from the CCTV cameras inside has already been collected.”
However, he did not confirm whether the footage revealed the cause of the fire, advising reporters to wait for the investigation report.
The Secretariat houses 30 ministries across eight buildings, reports bdnews24.com.
Building No. 7, where the fire erupted, is a ten-storey structure hosting key offices, including the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Division and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Secretariat officials said each office is equipped with CCTV cameras.
According to the fire service, four floors—sixth to ninth—were damaged, with the eighth and ninth floors suffering extensive losses. Most documents on these floors were destroyed.
When questioned by reporters, the home advisor mentioned around 560 law enforcement personnel, including one superintendent and assistant superintendent of police, are responsible for the Secretariat’s security.
The government has formed a high-level committee, led by a senior secretary, to investigate the recent fire at the Secretariat, with instructions to submit a preliminary report within three days.
The committee will be chaired by the senior secretary of the home ministry and include representatives from the housing and public works ministry, the police inspector general, the fire service director general (as member secretary), an explosives expert from the armed forces, and three specialists from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, or BUET, —civil, chemical, and electrical engineers.
Besides the high-level committee, the Cabinet Division has also formed a seven-member committee, led by Additional Secretary Mohammad Khaled Rahim.
This committee, tasked with identifying the fire’s cause, any culpability, and recommending preventive measures, has been given seven working days to submit its report.