Fire breaks out at Bashundhara City shopping mall in Dhaka

A fire has broken out at the Bashundhara City shopping mall in Dhaka's Panthapath.

Authorities evacuated shoppers and staff of the multi-storey mall after flames erupted on the fifth floor on Sunday.

It said the flames were 'almost under control' after two hours of efforts around 1pm.

No casualties have been reported so far. Smoke was seen billowing out of the building even after 6pm.

Fire Service Director Major Shakil Newaz earlier in the afternoon told bdnews24.com that they were yet to put out the fire completely. “But it is under control.”

“There are so many flammable materials inside. That’s why it has become very hard to control the fire. But the fire is not spreading,” he added.

Fire Service Deputy Director Mizanur Rahman said 19 people who were trapped on the roof and inside the eight-storey popular shopping mall were rescued in two phases throughout the day.

Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq and mediapersons had rushed to the mall soon after news of the fire spread.

According to unconfirmed reports, electrical malfunction caused the fire, but authorities are yet to confirm it.

Director General of the Fire Service Brig Gen Ali Ahmad Khan said a five-member committee will investigate the incident.

Around 11am, bdnews24.com's Sub-editor Alifullah Khan reported that smoke was billowing out of the mall's fifth floor.

He said panic-stricken shoppers and staff rushed out of the mall, popular with Dhaka residents.

The second largest shopping complex of the country has two buildings. One of them, the 19-storey one, used to house the Bashundhara Group’s corporate headquarters.

The other building, the eight storey one which caught fire on Sunday for the third time in the past seven years, houses the shopping mall and a multiplex on the top floor along with a huge food court.

A few years ago, on Mar 13, 2009, a fatal fire swept the top floors of the first building, claiming seven lives and injuring over 100.

Another incident of fire had occurred in the shopping mall in August the same year and another in September 2015. Both incidents had taken place on the eighth floor.

Around 1:15pm on Sunday, Fire Service chief Ali Ahmad Khan told the media the flames were almost under control and they hoped to manage the situation within an hour or two.

He said no-one was injured in the fire.

After the fire broke out, the mall's fire-fighting staff had started putting out the flames. They were soon joined by the Fire Service personnel.

A staffer of clothing shop 'Infinity Mega Mall', on the sixth floor of the mall, said the fire had started from a footwear shop on the fifth floor.

He said they had moved out after being asked by the management of the mall.

A Fire Service officer told journalists the situation could have been managed sooner had the mall management allowed them to break the glass walls of the building or the windows to get the smoke out faster.

Abdul Momin, who works at a clothing shop on the third floor, said they first spotted smoke coming out from a footwear shop on level six. Then everyone started to rush out of the building.

But he also claimed there were no flames. "Everyone was just opening their shops. There weren't many shoppers. Everyone left the building safely. But we didn’t see the fire. We only saw the smoke.”