Basundahara city mall catches fire again

A fire that broke out on the fifth floor of Basundhara City Complex shopping mall at Panthapath in Dhaka Sunday morning was brought under control at about 8:30pm after nine hours’ effort, fire service and civil defence officials said.
The fire, however, could not be put off totally until the filing of this report at 10pm.
There was no casualty in the fire that originated at 11:23am and fire fighters rescued at least 19 people who were trapped in the building during the fire fighting hours, officials said.
They said that they rescued Mamun Munshi, an air condition repair worker of Basundahara city, who got stranded in the ninth floor of the building in the afternoon. He was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, hospital sources said.
This was the third fire incident in the shopping mall, official sources in the fire service said.
Fire Service and Civil Defence director general Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan in a briefing at about 9pm said the fire came under control and fire fighters had been doing the ‘dumping work’.
He said that 70 percent shops, out of about 100 in the C block of the fifth floor, were either totally or partially gutted in the fire but it did not spread to other blocks of the floor.
The floor has three other blocks.
The DG said that he had formed a five-member probe committee to investigate the reason for the fire, losses and electromechanical system of the shopping mall, and asked for the report within seven days.
He said that the shopping mall authority began to fight fire immediately and the fire service fire fighters joined the efforts soon after.
He, however, could not say the reason for the fire immediately.
A total of 160 fire fighters of 28 firefighting units had worked to control the flame.
The Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Annisul Huq who came to the spot at about 1am to oversee fire-fighting told reporters that there should be an investigation into why the shopping mall caught fire frequently as it was the third such instance since 2009.
As the shopping centre caught fire, the shopping mall authority evacuated people from the entire building and began fighting fire through their own effort.
Meanwhile, the fire fighters joined them and police barred movement of vehicles from SAARC fountain at Karwanbazar to Panthapath intersection, which caused traffic congestion on surrounding roads, police and locals said.
The shopkeepers at the fifth floor said the fire originated at a shoe store on block C of level six of the shopping mall and it spread to the adjacent shops immediately.
The fifth floor has shops of shoes, leather goods, mobile phone sets and computer, said Shahadot Hossain, owner of Mahee Mobile A to Z, on the floor.
The shopping mall’s senior general manager (human resources and administration) Mostafa Rahel Imam said that they managed to keep the fire confined within seven or eight shoe and leather shops of C Block of level six, which were totally gutted.
He said that some more shops might be damaged partially.
The senior GM, however, could not identify the reason for the fire and the amount of the loss immediately.
On March 13, 2009, at least seven people died and 20 others were injured in a raging blaze that broke out at the shopping mall. Another fire occurred in the shopping mall in 2015 but there was no casualty in the incident.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net