Fire service vehicles will only be allowed on the Bangabandhu Bridge if toll plaza feels the need, said executive engineer of Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Ahsanul Kabir Pavel.

On June 8, Saturday, he said: “though there was information from emergency number 999, we did not have any knowledge of a fire incident and therefore, didn’t allow fire service vehicles.”

On Friday, June 7, around 3:15 someone called 999 that a bus had caught fire on the Bangabandhu Bridge. Hearing this, a fire department team from Bhuapur went towards the incident but was not allowed onto the bridge.

The incident was widely discussed on social media, triggering backlash. In response, engineer Ahsanul Kabir Pavel, said: “the news of the fire was fake; there are CCTV’s above and under the bridge and we did not notice ay fire.”

In the past, when there was a fire incident at Eco Park, fire service cars were allowed toll free entry to the bridge.

He further added: “if there’s a fire incident, we usually inform the service; in addition, we also have our own fire extinguishing facility.”

When we fail, we call the fire department, he observed. 

Bhuapur fire service station master Ferdous Mia, said: “on Friday, 2:55 pm, a call came to 999 informing about a fire and the caller also confirmed the incident when we contacted that person on a mobile number.”

When a team went to tackle the emergency, it was stopped at the toll plaza of the bridge; despite telling them of the fire, we were not allowed to go onto the bridge, he added.

 “A few policemen on the bridge said that apart from the president’s car, no other vehicle would be allowed to pass without paying toll.”

The bridge authority and the fire service are both public service departments; if they cannot ensure safety then we cannot do anything;

We do not have a fund to pay toll; also, when we heard the news, we left within 30 seconds instead of thinking about the toll, commented Bhuapur fire service master.

Deputy Director of Tangail fire service, Abdur Razzak, said: “we do not have any directive to pay toll on the bridge; we are not aware of any incident where fire service car had to pay toll to cross any bridge.” 

OC of Bangabandhu north police station, Mosharraf Hossain, said: “the information about the fire on the bridge was false and that’s why the fire service car was not allowed to go onto the bridge.