Firefighters in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said on Friday that security lapses had worsened the fire that broke out a day earlier at a restaurant in the capital and spread to a building, killing at least 45 people and injuring dozens. , hospitalized in critical condition.
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The fire broke out on Thursday evening at a popular restaurant on the ground floor of a seven-story building in Dhaka's upscale Bailey Road area, which also housed other restaurants.
The fire was made worse by numerous gas cylinders stored in stairwells and restaurant kitchens, fire department head Rezaul Karim told AFP.
“During the fire, people heard the explosion of several gas canisters,” he said.
When questioned by journalists on Friday morning, firefighters speculated that one of the gas cylinders that caught fire had made the fire worse.
According to Main Uddin, head of the national fire service, the building had significant violations of safety standards.
“There were not at least two stairwells or emergency exits,” he told AFP. “Most people died of suffocation.”
Police officers were seen inside the destroyed building on Friday morning inspecting the rubble, hours after the government ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Injured man in critical condition
As for the victims, one injured man succumbed to his injuries in hospital on Friday morning, bringing the death toll to at least 45, police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP. “The condition of 15 to 16 injured people is critical,” he added.
Dhaka University Hospital and another nearby facility that specializes in treating burn victims received at least 40 injured people.
“None of them are out of danger,” Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen previously told AFP after visiting these facilities.
A total of 75 people were rescued, according to a press release from the fire department, which brought the fire under control within two hours.
The fire broke out at 9:50 p.m. (15:50 GMT) on Thursday and quickly spread across the ground, trapping many people.
“We were on the sixth floor when we saw smoke coming up the stairs. A lot of people rushed upstairs,” said Sohel, a restaurant manager.
“We used a water pipe to descend. Some of us got injured while jumping,” he said.
Others were stuck on the roof and called for help. “We bring down all women and children, including my wife and children. All of us men are on the roof. The fire department is at our side. We still have to kill fifty people,” Kamruzzaman Majumdar, an environmental science professor who was also rescued, wrote on Facebook.
Hundreds of victims' relatives rushed to Dhaka Medical University Hospital, where ambulances transported the dead and injured.
Fires in residential buildings and industrial complexes are common in Bangladesh due to lax enforcement of safety regulations.
The worst fire the country has ever seen occurred in 2012 in a suburb of Dhaka at a textile factory producing clothes for export to Western countries: the fire killed at least 111 workers and injured more than 200 .
In February 2019, 70 people died when a fire spread to several residential buildings in Dhaka.
Finally, in July 2021, the fire that ravaged a food factory in Rupganj, an industrial city near Dhaka, killed at least 52 workers, including children, who worked there.