Child dies in Moghbazar fire

A child was burnt to death in a fire that broke out at Modhubagh in Dhaka's Moghbazar area on Saturday.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 Feb 2014, 03:36 AM
Updated : 8 Feb 2014, 09:39 AM

The fire started around 8:15am at a slum, adjacent to Hatirjheel, Fire Service official Mohammad Ali told bdnews24.com.

Some 13 fire fighting units fought the blaze and controlled it by 9:15am, he said.

A local named Shamsu Mia said an oven sparked the fire from one Bablu Mia’s house that spread to the slum and a rickshaw garage.

Around 300 people lived in the more than 100 shanties in the slum, he said.

All were gutted, Ramna Police Station OC Moshiur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

The body of three-year-old ‘Sabuj’ was found in one of the houses, he said.

The victim’s mother Morzina Begum who works as a domestic help said she had left for work keeping Sabuj with her elder daughter.

As the fire broke out everybody ran out of the slum.

Sabuj who was asleep during the fire was burnt alive.

Dhaka District Fire Service Deputy Director Zahirul Islam said there were different versions of how the fire started.

A four-member committee headed by Fire Brigade Headquarters Deputy Director (Administration) Farid Uddin has been formed to probe the source of the fire and estimate the damage.

Garment worker Tania Begum, one of the victim slum dwellers, said all furniture of her house were consumed by the fire.
Another dweller Hasina Begum, who works as a domestic help, said she also lost everything.
She said she had no idea where to live and what to eat now.
Local Awami League leader Wahidul Haque Khan said party activists were working to assist the victims.