Slum dwellers see their dreams go up in flames

Some of them are garment factory workers, some are night guards, some drivers, and some are students. They dreamed of a better life at Madhya Badda Pushkuniparha.

But all of them saw their dreams going up in smoke in a devastating fire on Monday. 
 
The fire burnt to ashes a boarding house, several shops and more than 100 shanties.
 
BAF Shaheen College student Alam Taj, who used to live in a room of the tin-shed lodging house with his uncle since 2010, has lost all his belongings including books to the blaze.
 

Taj, from Shariatpur district, said he had rushed to inform the Fire Brigade of the incident after he saw the fire at makeshift houses on the pond behind his room around noon.

But the fire-fighters took around an hour to reach the spot, he said.

“I could not retrieve anything. I thought the fire would be doused once fire-fighters sprayed water. I had imagined the fire would not reach our boarding house. But everything is destroyed.”

Taj sought financial help from the government for those affected by the fire.

More than 150 families lived in over a hundred shanties on the pond. All of them lost their shelter and belongings to the two-hour fire.

Shahnaz Begum, one of the shanty dwellers, was wailing after losing her belongings.

“I have nothing now. Everything is burnt. What will I do now?” she cried.

Begum could, however, find consolation in the fact that her two sons had survived the fire.
 
“They were inside. Thank Allah... They managed to get out of the house. Otherwise, I might have had to jump into that fire,” she said.

Microbus driver ‘Rana’ used to live in one of the shanties for the last 12 years. Hearing about the fire, he had rushed to the area only to find everything being engulfed by the blaze.
 
He said: “I’d bought a fridge and a cot on credit. I’m yet to pay the money. Now how will I pay?
 
Rozina Begum, a former garment worker living in a shanty, said: “I just jumped out (of the house) hearing about the fire. I could not take anything out.”
 

Vegetables vendor Ahmed Ali Sumon, a shanty dweller, was sobbing in front of his burnt house.

The Sumon couple and their three sons had rushed out but left their belongings behind, as the fire spread. 

The 13-Bigha shanty area belongs to local Ward Councillor Osman Gani and his siblings.

Osman’s nephew Md Farid said: “We’re fortunate that there was Eid holiday (when the fire broke out). That’s why people could come out. 

“Evacuation would have been difficult if all the residents were present.”