Fire burns Amar Desh office
A fire raged through Bangla daily Amar Desh office housed on the 10th floor of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation building in the capital’s Karwan Bazar on Friday reducing furniture, computers and documents to ashes.The fire broke out at about 11:45pm and engulfed the office within few minutes.None was injured in the fire, said police officials.
The flame was doused by 2:00pm after more than two hours’ frantic efforts by 21 units of firefighters, said Fire Service and Civil Defence officials. Huge smoke billowing from the 10th floor of the building blackened the area.Fire service director general Ali Ahmed Khan said that they primarily suspected that the fire might have originated from electric short-circuit at the store room.The staffs and hired labours were shifting office materials, including air conditioners as the daily was shifting its office to Niketan. During the process, there might be any eclectic glitch causing the fire, Ali said.Two private television channels NTV and RTV, housed in the building, were forced to shut down their broadcast temporarily. NTV, later started their broadcasting in alternative management using Channel 9 office.
Amar Desh, NTV’s art room and a lawyer’s chamber were on the 10th floor.The building also caught fire in 2007.
Ali said that they had found that the building had two fire exits which were not sufficient for such a large building and it was in shabby condition.
He told reporters that none of the fire extinguishing equipments of the building worked.Fire service officials said that they had the highest 56-meter ladder which could effectively be used on 14th to 15th floor.The newspaper authority said that the incident was not merely an accident from electric short-circuit.
At a briefing, National Press Club general secretary Syed Abdal Ahmed, the executive editor of the daily, said that the incident was it was a mysterious fire.
Quoting fire service officials, Abdal said that the daily’s office was totally raged. Computes, server lines, hundreds of documents since the initiation of the newspaper and the archives were totally burnt to ashes.
Amar Desh news editor Zahed Chowdhury said that they had left the office at BSEC building and paid all of their dues on Thursday.
Some office staff and hired labours were shifting the office materials to its new office at Niketon of Gulshan on Friday morning. Suddenly the fire broke out at the storehouse and raged all over the floor.Fire service director (operations) Mohammad Mahboob said that papers at the store room caught fire that spread quickly before their arrival.Ali Ahmed, a technician of Amar Desh, said that they heard a sound of spark from ceiling at 10:30pm, but did not notice any fire or smoke then. They were busy at work, but several minutes later, they saw fire and heavy smoke engulfed the store room.
They tried to douse the fire by fire extinguisher, but failed and then informed the building staffs and firefighters, he said.Abdal said, ‘About 500 of our journalists are leading distressed life after the government has sealed our press and detained our Editor Mahmudur Rahman.’‘The authority could not pay the rent for the office. Yesterday [Thursday] we cleared the dues and today [Friday] were moving to a new office to run our online version in full flow,’ he said.He demanded compensation and immediate release of their editor allowing resuming the publication of the daily.
Fire service director Mohammad Mahboob said, ‘We have already formed a five-member probe team headed by deputy director Mizanur Rahman to find out the cause of the fire.’The committee was asked to submit the probe report in seven working days, he added.BSEC authority also formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident.Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu, state minister for home affairs Asaduzzaman Khan and acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir visited the spot.Fakhrul suspected that there might have been a plot to permanently stop Amar Desh to suppress the criticisms of the government.
The ministers also said that they would ensure proper investigation into the incident.
Action would be taken if anybody found guilty for the incident, they said.People working at the 11-stoired building came out after the fire broke out at about 11:45am.
The publication of Amar Desh print version remained suspended since April 2013, but the online version of the newspaper continued. - See more at: http://newagebd.net/62791/fire-burns-amar-desh-office/#sthash.eNDoAz8a.dpuf
