Disheartened shop owners visiting their burnt shops after a fire swept through Gulshan-1 DNCC kitchen market in the city on Saturday morning — FE photo More than 200 shops were gutted in yet another fire in Gulshan's DNCC kitchen market.
But no casualties were reported while the reason for the fire and the extent of damage could not be ascertained immediately.
The fire broke out in the DNCC market at around 5:50 in the morning, according to traders and Fire Service officials.
The incident took place two days after the devastating blaze at the 22-storey FR Tower in Banani that killed 26 people while injuring many others.
Twenty units of the Fire Service along with teams from the Navy, Air Force and the Army were able to bring the Gulshan fire under control by 8.30 am.
Major Shakil Newaj, director (operations and maintenance) of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence (BFSCD) told reporters that the firefighters from Baridhara, Kurmitola and Tejgaon stations reached the spot immediately.
Traders said the losses from the incident will be nearly as high as Tk 1.5 billion as it brought their goods to ashes.
This was not the first such incident. In early 2017, the market was destroyed by a massive fire.
The tin-shed kitchen market houses groceries, imported food ingredients, fruits, vegetables, cosmetics, mobile parts and so on.
Officer in-charge (investigation) of Gulshan Thana Mahbub Alam told the FE that a total of 211 out of 291 registered shops were gutted.
A temporary Police Control Room was set up in front of the market, he said.
Secretary of the Gulshan-1 DNCC Kacha and Super Market Cooperative Samity, a platform of the shop owners, Abul Kashem said that apart from the registered shops, another 37 unregistered shops also caught fire.
He said a total of 248 shops have been burned.
He estimated that the shop owners incurred a loss of Tk 1.5 billion.
He said in the last inferno of 2017, a total of 366 shops were burned and the owners racked up a loss of more than Tk 5.5 billion.
"We got no compensation for the last incident," he said.
Proprietor of Zakir Traders Md Zakir Hossain had food products and ingredients worth Tk 4.0 million.
He said after the incident in 2017, he started to recover by taking loans of Tk 2.0 million from the privately owned Uttara Bank.
"I've nothing left in my hand to recover now," he said.
He alleged that the fire service took more than 30 minutes to reach the spot despite the road being unclogged in the morning.
The losses could be minimised had the fire service reached the market earlier.
Md Aminul Islam, another shop owner in the market, incurred a loss of Tk 7.0 million for the fire incident.
He also witnessed a loss of Tk 15.0 million in 2017 fire incident.
There are conflicting versions, however.
Shakil Newaj said that after the 2017 fire at the DNCC market, the fire service made several recommendations to the market authorities regarding fire safety.
"But none of those recommendations have been implemented," he said.
He said the market has no adequate water supply to fight a blaze, which forced firemen to fetch water from a distant place.
Talking to the FE, senior vice president of the market Md Zaman said no fireman or the DNCC official ever came to the market to train them on how to operate equipment.
Secretary of the market Abul Kashem said it was the sole duty of the government agencies to induce shop owners into equipping the market with preventive fire safety tools.
"We sought help from the DNCC authority several times in this regard but got no response," he said.
Meanwhile, the Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters formed a five-member committee to ascertain the reason behind the fire and assess the losses.
The probe committee is headed by its deputy director (administration and finance), Md Shamim Ahsan Chowdhury, an official at the Service told the FE.
The committee has been asked to submit its report, detailing the reason behind the fire, losses and other info within seven days, he said.
Against the backdrop of two fire incidents, minister for housing and public works SM Rezaul Karim announced a 15-day special drive to inspect fire safety measures in the city's high-rises from Sunday.
He warned that if necessary, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) will demolish the buildings that do not comply with fire safety standards.
The minister came up with the announcement after visiting the fire-hit Gulshan-1 DNCC kitchen market.
Mr Karim said the authorities will also take stern legal action against the buildings which would be found violating fire safety regulations and building code.
Meanwhile, another fire broke out at the fifth floor of the Delta Life Insurance Building in the city's Gulshan-2 area at 3.00 pm on the day.
Two units of the fire service were able to douse the fire in 50 minutes, according to the fire service control room.
No casualties were reported.
Yet a third fire broke out in the city's Dhanmondi residential area.
Fire Service and Civil Defence said the fire at a building at Dhanmondi Road 11/A was doused by locals before firefighters reached the scene.
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