Fire at Savar burns 11 buses
Saturday, 19 September 2009
FE Report
Eleven CNG-run air-conditioned passenger buses were damaged by a devastating fire that broke out early Friday at the Anandapur bus depot of Savar off the capital, police said.
Fire Brigade sources said the blaze, which originated from a bus at about 6:55am, soon spread to the depot and gutted 11 of the 23 buses belonging to the Trans Millennium Company Limited (TMCL).
An officer of the fire brigade told the FE that gas leak from the cylinder of the bus might have caused the fire incident. But he didn't comment on how the gas leak could lead to burning of the 11 big buses in such swiftness.
"The loss caused by the fire was estimated at around Tk 20 million," he said.
On information, firefighters from the units at Savar and the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) rushed to the spot and doused the fire at about 8:15am with support from the locals.
The luxury AC passenger buses run on the Motijheel-Savar route.
Sub-inspector (SI) Abu Taher of the Savar police station said they found most of the gutted buses lying there for long because of various dysfunctions.
TMCL managing director Alamgir Hossain Khan hinted in the morning that failure of extortion might be behind the arson attack, but in the afternoon he denied his early comments on extortion.
Locals blamed an influential Awami League leader for the incident.
Seeking anonymity, a witness said musclemen of the AL leader set the fire as the authorities failed to pay a toll of Tk 1.50 million, earlier demanded by the leader.
Alamgir, later, only lodged a General Diary case with the local police station that wondered everybody in the locality.
Eleven CNG-run air-conditioned passenger buses were damaged by a devastating fire that broke out early Friday at the Anandapur bus depot of Savar off the capital, police said.
Fire Brigade sources said the blaze, which originated from a bus at about 6:55am, soon spread to the depot and gutted 11 of the 23 buses belonging to the Trans Millennium Company Limited (TMCL).
An officer of the fire brigade told the FE that gas leak from the cylinder of the bus might have caused the fire incident. But he didn't comment on how the gas leak could lead to burning of the 11 big buses in such swiftness.
"The loss caused by the fire was estimated at around Tk 20 million," he said.
On information, firefighters from the units at Savar and the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) rushed to the spot and doused the fire at about 8:15am with support from the locals.
The luxury AC passenger buses run on the Motijheel-Savar route.
Sub-inspector (SI) Abu Taher of the Savar police station said they found most of the gutted buses lying there for long because of various dysfunctions.
TMCL managing director Alamgir Hossain Khan hinted in the morning that failure of extortion might be behind the arson attack, but in the afternoon he denied his early comments on extortion.
Locals blamed an influential Awami League leader for the incident.
Seeking anonymity, a witness said musclemen of the AL leader set the fire as the authorities failed to pay a toll of Tk 1.50 million, earlier demanded by the leader.
Alamgir, later, only lodged a General Diary case with the local police station that wondered everybody in the locality.