©Reuters. Firefighters spray water to put out a fire that broke out in a multi-storey building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 29, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
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By Ruma Paolo
DHAKA (Reuters) – A huge fire in Bangladesh that ravaged a six-story building that housed restaurants where many families with children were dining has killed at least 45 people and injured dozens, the health minister said on Friday.
Firefighters said a gas leak or stove could have caused Thursday’s fire in the capital, which spread rapidly after breaking out in a biryani restaurant, and was only brought under control after two hours of intervention by 13 fire brigade unit.
Hospitals are treating 22 people with burns, Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen told reporters.
“All 22 people… are in critical condition,” Sen said after a visit to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock and grief over the accident, ordering officials to provide prompt treatment to the injured.
One survivor, Mohammad Altaf, said he escaped the fire that killed two colleagues.
“I went into the kitchen, broke a window and jumped to save myself,” he told reporters, adding that a cashier and a waiter who asked people to leave in the first moments had died later.
Firefighters used cranes to rescue people from the charred building, said firefighters, who were still working to remove debris and extinguish any remaining embers.
Relatives gathered at the hospital early Friday to receive the bodies of the dead, with some mourning outside the emergency room.
Doctors said most of the dead were killed by suffocation, while others died while jumping from the building, which also houses some clothing and mobile phone stores.
The fire may have started from a gas leak or a stove, said Brigadier General Main Uddin, a senior fire official.
“It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the stairs,” he told Reuters, adding that it had a single staircase, lacking an emergency exit and other safety measures.
The government has set up a five-member commission to investigate the incident.
The main opposition party blamed the fire on the government.
“Accidents and disasters continue to occur because there is no rule of law,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, general secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said in a statement.
“The government is not accountable to the people and that is why anarchy prevails, many accidents occur and people lose their lives.”
Intense scrutiny of Bangladesh and major global clothing retailers that produce there has helped prevent disasters in the garment industry since a fire in 2012 and a building collapse in 2013 combined killed more than 1,200 workers.
But in other sectors, which cater primarily to the booming national economy and do not have equal attention to safety, hundreds of people have died in fires.
Fires are common in densely populated Dhaka, where many new buildings have sprung up, many of which lack adequate safety measures. Fires and explosions are the result of gas cylinders, faulty air conditioners and inadequate electrical wiring.
In July 2021, many children were among 54 people killed at a food processing factory outside Dhaka, while at least 70 people were killed in a February 2019 fire that engulfed a century-old district.