Case filed, two owners held for Bangladesh building fire [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Case filed, two owners held for Bangladesh building fire

Local March 31, 2019

The police on Saturday filed a case for fire in the FR Tower, which killed at lease 26 people on March 28, and arrested owners' association presdient Tasvir Ul Islam Saturday evening and landlord SMHI Faruque early Sunday.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional deputy commissioner Golam Saklayen Sithil said that they arrested Faruque at about 1:30am.
Detective Branch of police on Saturday night arrested Tasvir Ul Islam, president of Faruk Rupayan Tower Owners Association, in the case.
Mashiur Rahman, deputy commissioner (DB North) of Dhaka Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told New Age that they arrested Tasvir Ul Islam at his Gulshan home in the night for negligence in maintenance of the building and illegally expanding it to 23-storey from the approved 18-storey.
Tasvir is also the owner of Quasem Group and president of Kurigram district Mostaq Ahmed said.
The fire at the 23-storey building also left over 100 injured.
The authorities have so far handed over 25 of the bodies to their families till Friday evening. Many of the injured were still under treatment at different government and private hospitals in the capital.
SM Mostaq said that a case was recorded with the Banani police station on Saturday in connection with Friday’s fire. He declined to give details of the case.
Besides, two probe committees into the Banani fire incident – one formed by the home ministry and the other by the disaster management and relief ministry – visited the affected building on Saturday.
The home ministry’s probe committee found that the death toll in the fire increased as the width of the building’s emergency exit was only 24 inches.
Committee convener and security service division additional secretary Tarun Kanti Sikder said the offices on the 8th, 9th and10th floors of FR Tower were decorated with inflammable items.
He said that the building was badly damaged and its further usability would be decided after experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology examine it. He did not make it clear when the committee would submit the report.
The disaster management and relief ministry formed committee convener Fazlur Rahman, after visiting the spot, said that they were yet to be confirmed how the fire was
originated and estimate the damages.
He also said that they found the 8th, 9th and 10th floors badly damaged.
The committee will hear versions of the surviving officials working at 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the building in an open hearing convened beside the FR Tower at 10:00am on Sunday to find out the reason of fire. ‘We found fire hydrant on the floors unused,’ he added.
Faizur also said that they would submit their report and recommendations by April 3.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company officials said that they have resumed electricity supply to Banani on Saturday evening but power connection to FR Tower and adjacent two buildings would remain suspended on safety grounds. They had snapped power supply in the area after the fire broke out on Friday.
Dhaka North City Corporation hung a notice citing that the building was dangerous and asked all to avoid the building.
The fire erupted barely a month after at least 71 people were killed in a fire in buildings where chemicals were stored illegally at Churihatta of Chawk Bazar in the Old Town of Dhaka on February 20.
In less than 48-hours of of Banani fire, another fire burnt down the DNCC Kitchen Market at Gulshan 1 on Saturday causing huge damages but no casualties were reported.