The national professional body of the engineers has said evidence shows faulty construction at Banani’s FR Tower in Dhaka, where a fire broke out on Mar 28 killing as many as 26 people.
Fault has been found in the building’s staircases proved the faulty construction, said Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) in its report on the Banani fire incident.
It said fire safety issue went unconsidered in the building plan, which is one the reasons that caused the huge blaze.
The IEB on Mar 29 started a separate inquiry, headed by former IEB president Engineer Mohammad Nurul Huda, to find out "proper reasons" of the fire and making recommendations.
On Saturday (Apr 6), the team reported to IEB chief with a set of recommendation, IEB General Secretary Khandakar Manzur Morshed told Bangla Tribune.
Engineers have also expressed doubt to which extent the building plan has been followed during construction.
“We are yet to get the copy of the building plan. At present, we can’t say whether building plan has been followed,” said Morshed adding many times building is constructed sidestepping the plan, approved by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK).
The IEB report said the Mar 28 fire might have originated from either the kitchen on the south-east side or a nearby room on the building’s 7th floor as fire caused relatively more damage there.
There was gas burners at the kitchen while the nearby room stored air conditioner, electric wire, furniture and cotton thread.
The fire might have started either from electrical short circuit, gas leakage or air conditioner, it said.
