The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Ten people, including three women and two children of a family were burnt to death and seven others received burn injuries in a devastating fire at a five-storey building at Aga Sadek Road under Kotwali Police Station in the old city Sunday midnight.

The duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters, Ataur Rahman, said fire fighters and residents recovered 10 charred bodied from the building. The victims were asleep when the pre-dawn blaze started, Rahman said among the dead were two children.

Fire service source said the fire originated at a shoe factory on the ground floor of the five-storey building at about 12:10am and soon spread to the staircases on the second and third floor apartments in the crowded neighbourhood.

Local people said that the fire originated at Purnima Traders when a burning candle tripped on inflammable chemical during power outage at night. After the shop caught fire the shop-owner and workers quietly fled the scene.

On information, fire fighters rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control after frantic efforts for an hour. They found 10 bodies at the scene of the fire, according to the control room.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police Kotwali Zone, Syed Nurul Islam, told the New Nation they recovered ten bodies from the spot.

Nasrin an official at the control room yesterday told the New Nation that the deceased, who were residents of the building, include six males, two females and two children.

Nine of the victims were identified as Shabana Siddiqui, 38, Ayesha

Siddiqui, 15, Abu Sayeed Shuvo, 11, Amisha, 18, a maid servant, Akmal

Hossain, 52, Meherunnessa, 63, Aman Hossain, 11, Rafin Ahmed, 6, and

Anas Hossain, 7.

The seven injured, tenants in the building, were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Of them, four, Ruma, Nurul and two others were given first aid, while one Golam Rabbani was shifted to Trauma Hospital in Shyamoli with third-degree burn injuries, he added.

Relatives shifted two burn-injured-Azizul Haque and Manik-to other hospitals from the DMCH, AC police said.

Another fire official, Mizanur Rahman, told the New Nation an investigation into the incident has been ordered.

Shanto, who survived the fire on the fateful night, was seen crying over the dead bodies of his family members at the scene. He is the only son of Abu Bakar Siddique, the owner of the building, who died of a heart attack some 40 days ago.

His sister and brother-in-law and two nephews come to the house for the 'Qulkhani' of their father.

Local people blamed the loss of lives and damage to property partly on the late arrival of firemen to the spot-only a stone throw away from the Fire Headquarters.