Fire at Palli Bhaban, NCCB

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Fire-fighters rescuing the people trapped inside the 'Palli Bhaban' in the city's Karwan Bazar area after a fire broke out in the building Sunday. — FE photo

FE Report
A fire broke out at 'Polli Bhaban', the head office of Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), in the city's Karwan Bazar commercial area Sunday.
Witnesses said the fire originated from the basement of the seven-storied building at about 2:30pm and soon spread across Karupalli, an outlet of government-run handicraft project on the ground floor of the bhaban.
Though the ground floor was allocated for car parking, the building authorities used it as a warehouse and for dumping abandoned vehicles, violating the building codes, firefighters alleged. Nearly 25 rejected vehicles were destroyed in the incident.
During the blaze, most of the employees of the building managed to get down from it, accept three, who were trapped on the rooftop and were later rescued by the firefighters.
Senior station officer of Ramna zone Fire Brigade Abdul Jalil told the FE that they doused the inferno at about 4:35pm with the help of local people. "Electric short circuit may cause the incident," he suspected.