Another city market in flames

Yet another market in the capital became the victim of a massive fire early Saturday gutting several hundred shops and forcing the businesses in the entire New Market area, a major hub of mostly clothing items, to shut down, dealing an enormous  blow to thousands of traders during the peak Eid-ul-Fitr business season.

The fire broke out at the Dhaka New Super Market, adjacent to the New Market, at 5: 40am Saturday, 11 days after a devastating fire burnt down over 5,000 shops at the city’s Bangabazar Shopping Complex and adjacent markets.

A total of 31 firefighting units and teams, including from the Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force, brought the fire under control after vigorous efforts for several hours, but the flame remained to be completely extinguished by 10:00pm when this report was filed.

This is the fifth incident of fire at markets and shopping complexes in the capital over the past two and a half weeks.

The origin of and reasons behind the Saturday fire are yet to be ascertained, but police, Fire Service, traders and the Dhaka South City Corporation did not rule out f sabotage and subversive activities, calling for probe.

The fire broke out at about 5:40am and was brought under control at about 9:10am, said Fire Service director general Brigadier General Main Uddin.

According to him, most of the markets in the capital are vulnerable to fire due to unregulated usage of power.

The Fire Service chief asked for investigation by detectives to confirm whether it was a subversive act.

Firefighters made hole on the rooftop of the market building for watering the fire pockets.

A total of 30 people, including 13 firefighters, were admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital after they fell sick from the heavy smoke, said DMCH police outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia.

The hospitalised people includes Bayjid, 25, Shah Alam, 20, Limon, 28, Kamal Hossain, 33, Rifat, 23, Toufik, 24, Rashed, 22, and Shanto, 24.

12 Border Guard Bangladesh units worked on the spot.

Traders said that the three-storied New Super Market housed more than 1,200 shops.

Fire Service deputy director Anisur Rahman said that the fire gutted shops on the first and second floors while shops on the second floor suffered the most because the origin point of the fire was there.

He said that they faced difficulties in their work due to a water crisis as 15 pumps were placed at the pond of Dhaka College for water supply while water supply was secured from the Azimpur Staff Quarter also.

According to New Super Market security guard Abdur Rob, the fire originated during a DSCC demolition work on a foot over-bridge in front of the market at about 5:30am.

Abdur Rob said that the DSCC had been trying to demolish a part of the overbridge for the past few days. A team of DSCC started demolishing the staircases of the overbridge on Thursday and resumed the demolition early Saturday.

‘I went to the spot and requested them not to continue the demolition during the Eid shopping. The DSCC team, backed by police and Ansar members, did not pay heed to our request and continued their work with machines,’ said the security guard.

‘During their demolition, there was a loud bang and the fire broke inside the market. The DSCC team fled the spot immediately,’ Abdur Rob further said.

The market shop owner association’s ad hoc committee convener Maruf Hossain, also a former president of the association, said that they, too, had heard from traders that the fire broke out during the DSCC demolition, but could not verify the information independently.

Maruf primarily estimated that about 300 shops were gutted on the first and second floors.

‘Total losses could not be estimated immediately as clothes of many other shops were damaged and soaked in water used for dousing the flame.

Many victim traders said that they had suffered losses worth Tk several crore in the fire.

A trader named Md Sakib said that shopping malls in the New Market area were known as a hub for mostly low-cost clothing items. Their businesses were thriving during this Eid season after the massive fire at Bangabazar, another hub of cheap clothing trade.

‘We have gathered new items worth Tk several lakh in our shop in the past two days and there was Tk five lakh cash in the shop. Our shop is on the second floor, the most-damaged floor. Everything in the shop has probably been gone,’ Sakib said.

Traders said that they could not have a good business turnover in the past few years due to the Covid restrictions and the series of clashes between New Market traders and Dhaka College students in the past year.

‘This year’s business showed a promising sign, but everything is shattered,’ one shop owner said.

Fire Service director for training Lieutenant Colonel Rezaul Karim said that there were lacks of ventilation and reserve water while the market’s narrow passages were crammed with clothes, all of which caused the fire to spread quickly and hindered the dousing efforts.    

The director further noted that the market

had no power accident emergency exit and fire extinguishers also did not work properly.  

Briefing the media later at night, Rezaul Karim said that the fire was yet to be completely doused and 12 firefighting units were still working there.

‘A complete dousing might take time, but there is no risk of further escalation of fire,’ he said.

Rezaul said that most of the shops on the first and second floors were gutted and firefighters were checking each shop.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq visited the spot and said that they were investigating the recent fire incidents in the capital to determine if there was sabotage behind the fires.

He said that intelligence surveillance would be strengthened at markets and intelligence personnel in plain clothe will be stationed in front of markets.

DSCC mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, too, visited the fire-damaged market and refuted traders’ allegation that the fire at New Super Market originated due to the demolition work on a nearby footbridge carried out by the city corporation team early morning.

He brushed aside the allegation as rumour and false propaganda, claiming that there was no scope to link the fire to the demolition work.

He said that they were alarmed at the repeated fire incidents during Ramandan and the Eid festival shopping, requesting intelligence agencies to investigate the incidents.

Taposh said that the parts of the overbridge linking to the market were declared risky a year earlier and were also marked, adding that as there are huge gathering of shoppers, hawkers and pedestrians, the DSCC decided to demolish it to avert any disaster.

The mayor said that the representatives of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd were present during the demolition which started manually at about 2:00am and ended at about 5:20am, and the fire broke out later.  

Taposh suspected that there might be subversive activities during this election year.

He also said that there were many illegal changes in original designs and crammed situation inside.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/199438/another-city-market-in-flames