The Churihatta intersection of Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar still reeks of the pungent smell of chemicals three days after the deadly fire that ripped through the ancient part of the town and claimed 68 lives.
The horror of the fire that left demolition and destruction in its wake can only be compared to the 2010 fire at Nimtali — just half a kilometer away, that killed 124 people.
Chawkbazar’s Churihatta looks similar to a war zone with debris and crumbling buildings and the air is heavy with the stench of perpetual loss of human life.
The entire area is abuzz with speculations of how the fire started. While some blame the sub-standard gas cylinders, and some blame electric transformers, some are convinced that the chemical warehouses are responsible for the tragedy that struck Old Dhaka for the second time in nine years.
However, everyone seems to be agreed on one thing. The fire originated at Wahid Mansion, the five-storied building that in itself was an explosive waiting to go off.
The building housed a warehouse on its second floor that stored bottles of body and room sprays. The canisters acted as explosives, going off and fuelling the fire throughout the night.
The second and third floor of the building are scattered with the charred remains of the metal canisters.
Not only that, a further probe revealed that the building had a basement that was used to store large containers of chemicals.
According to the fire service, should the flames have touched those, the carnage would have been much worse.
Churihatta was jam packed with traffic on that day; a seemingly regular phenomenon for Old Dhaka with its narrow alleys and buildings that seem to have been built on top of one another. Pedestrians and residents alike were burned in the fire that rained down on them after the explosion.
Many locals attribute the explosion to a gas cylinder bursting and chemical businesses are backing it up and vehemently denying their merchandise’s role in the tragedy.
Ashraf Uddin, a resident of the area said that apart from the stench the eyes feel a little irritation as well.
While chemical traders are blaming gas cylinders, even they agree that the fire morphed into an inferno fuelled by the spray canisters.
Md Afzal, who rented the basement of Wahid Mansion, told Bangla Tribune, “My warehouse doesn’t have any flammable substance.”
He added that the chemicals were used for colours and “if they were indeed flammable they would’ve exploded during the fire.”
Most of the residents, however, have shot down the chemical traders’ justifications saying that people have to be more aware and the warehouses must be removed.
Fire Service and Civil Defence Director (operation and management) Shakil Nawaz said that all the ingredients for a full-scale conflagration were present at Churihatta.
Everything starting from gas cylinder, flammable chemicals, body spray warehouses, motorcycles stuck in traffic, cars and restaurants that use cooking gas cylinders, all of which mixed together to create the horrifying blaze.
The fire service is conducting its own investigation to figure out the cause of the fire, added Nawaz.