Old Dhaka saw another fire tragedy just nine years after the Nimtali fire that killed over 120 people.
On Wednesday (Feb 20), on a seemingly regular night, a fire that ripped through the congested snaking alleyways of the Chawkbazar neighbourhood, gutted at least five buildings, killed 70 people and left hundreds missing.
The blaze reportedly originated on the ground floor of Whaid Mansion, a building that housed a chemical warehouse on the first floor.
There was much speculation about the cause of fire that included a gas cylinder, transformer or a chemical explosion.
Despite Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud’s claims that it was a LP gas cylinder explosion and no chemicals were found at the scene, fire service and probe committees ruled out both cylinder and transformer explosions.
“I saw for myself. There were no chemicals. It happened due to the cylinders. This is a different story,” the minister has said.
However, further inspection of Wahid Mansion revealed that it had a basement that stored large amount of chemicals in several big containers. The same goes for a Razzak Mansion right opposite. The chemicals, fortunately, remained intact in the fire.
A fire service team that discovered the chemicals on Friday (Feb 22) said that should the blaze have reached the basements, both the buildings would have been blown-off and the carnage would have been much worse than it already is.
“We found some chemicals and flammable substances while inspecting the basement,” said Fire Service official Ratan Kumar Debnath.
He added that many chemicals including iron oxide, ionic yellow and blue, various colour pigments and carbon ingeniria.
“If the flame had reached the basement the whole building would have gone down and several neighbouring buildings would have been damaged,” Debnath said,
He added that in that case it would have been much harder to bring the fire under control, which already took over 10 hours to douse.
“The top officials have been informed of the matter and steps will be taken according to their decision,” he said.
According to fire service men, the basement had zero ventilation and stored several chemical drums on one side and smaller containers of iron oxide. Basically the entire basement was a chemical warehouse.
They said that the building owner had broken all kinds of rules and laws by renting out a ventilation-free basement as a chemical warehouse.
A survey of Wahed Mansion revealed that the building itself like an explosive waiting to blow off anytime.
The entire second floor housed body sprays and room sprays all highly flammable in themselves.
The third floor stored cosmetics and spray bottles and the fourth floor stored a chemical warehouse.
Fire service said that the canisters went off like bombs throughout the night of the fire.
Moreover, the ground floor housed a few plastic warehouses and a refrigerator repair shop.
Locals said that Wahid Mansion was built around 20 years ago and two brothers, Hassan and Sohel were the owners.
Although both the brothers and their families have survived the fire, no one knows where they are now.