The workers were constructing a toilet at a school next to the temple in Faridpur’s Madhukhali Upazila
Chawkbazar was ‘already hell on earth’: How the inferno started and spread fast
After dozens of deaths in an inferno, the odour of burnt deodorant canisters, charred buildings and cars have filled the silent and dark air of Churihatta, where Nanda Kumar Dutta Road and Sheikh Ajgar Lane intersect like many other streets in the congested Old Dhaka neighbourhood.
Published : 21 Feb 2019, 11:01 PM
Updated : 22 Feb 2019, 03:45 PM
The area was as busy as other days on Wednesday with the shopkeepers preparing to shutter down for the night.
It was the eve of Language Movement Day. Friday and Saturday made it the day before three holidays, drawing larger crowds of customers from different parts of Dhaka.
The intersection in front of the Shahi Mosque was so packed with over 100 rickshaws, autorickshaws, private cars and pick-up vans that there was little or no space for the people travelling on the streets, mostly returning home, to walk.
All hell broke loose sometime around 10:30pm with a loud bang.
Warehouses of perfumes and cosmetics, plastic granules, gas cylinders at restaurants, book-binding factories, narrow streets, traffic congestion – all these acted as factors behind the devastation caused by the fire.
The fire was so massive, so intense that a couple and their baby boy on a rickshaw were burnt alive instantly, a witness said.
It spread so fast that most of the people inside the flats, shops and warehouses of Wahed Manjil, the building which suffered most damage, did not have the time to get out to safety.
Some were burning while they were running away, according to a witness.
Referring to the flammable objects stored in the densely populated area, Debashish Bardhan, a deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the stage for the inferno seems to have been all set there.
And urban planner Iqbal Habib believes the fire caused similar devastation like the one at Nimtali, a nearby Old Dhaka area, around a decade ago because the authorities did not follow the recommendations of a committee formed after the 2010 incident that claimed 127 lives.
At Chawkbazar, fire crews of 37 units struggled for 15 hours to completely put out the flames that engulfed a number of vehicles and five buildings.
The fire service called off the rescue operation on Thursday afternoon and sent 70 body bags to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where relatives were already gathered to find their loved ones.
The authorities were able to confirm that there are at least 67 bodies in the bags.
As many as 40 could be identified and handed over to the families for burial.
Some of the rest of the bodies were so charred that it has become difficult to identify those without DNA tests, for which the relatives of the missing have been asked to submit their saliva and blood sample.
A list of 11 missing has also been hung at the hospital where a number of victims, nine of them with burn injuries, were fighting for their lives.
President Md Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury have expressed sorrow over the casualties in the devastation.
Many foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have condoled the losses.
Dhaka South Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon announced end of the rescue operation at 1pm on Thursday, but three more fire fighting units were kept at the scene just in case.
Electricity, water and gas supplies to Churihatta have not resumed, leaving the area in eerie darkness on Thursday night.
Lights brought by the fire service for dumping work was the lone source of light in the area, left by many families.
CONFUSION OVER ORIGIN
There are conflicting accounts about the origin of the fire in statements of witnesses, officials, and the media while fire service declined comment on the matter before the conclusion of investigations.
Initially, some witnesses had said an electric transformer exploded and fell on the vehicles, fanning the fire onto the street and beyond.
But on-spot inspections later found no existence of any transformer next to the building where the fire was said to have originated.
Some witnesses said a gas cylinder on a pickup truck exploded triggering the fire.
Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun agreed.
No-one could confirm whether the pickup was carrying CNG cylinder or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder, or whether it was the CNG cylinder fuelling the vehicle.
Md Ashiq Uddin, a resident of the area, said he was about 30 to 35 metres away from the intersection when the fire started.
He saw the pickup falling on the street from above as he heard a loud bang.
“I think the impact of the explosion threw the pickup up. I saw it falling. The fire spread instantly at the moment,” he said.
The vehicle was stuck in the traffic congestion in front of Rajmahal Restaurant, in front of which there were the stove and some LPG cylinders, and Wahed Manjil, which housed warehouses of flammable materials like plastic and perfume cans.
The explosion set the cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and other vehicles on the street ablaze instantly.
Ataur Rahman, a fire service official, said he heard that the pickup was carrying gas cylinders. One of those fell down and exploded after the small truck hit an auto-rickshaw in front of it, Ataur said.
“The fire spread quickly as there were gas cylinders in front of Rajmahal Restaurant and warehouses of plastic and chemicals,” he added.
A dead body is recovered from the ruins of a massive fire at Churihatta of Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area on Thursday. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove
Metal skeletons of two burnt pickups, two sedans, around 35 rickshaws, and 30 motorcycles were still there on the street on Thursday.
Most walls of the five burnt buildings have been burnt down. The mosque lost tiles on its front side.
Raw materials for making plastic are seen scattered in the ruins of Churihatta in Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove
Charred cans of perfume and sacks of raw plastic were everywhere at the scene.
“The fire spread within 10 to 15 seconds after the loud bang,” Md Mofazzal Hossain, a 14-year old student of a madrasa run by the mosque authorities, said.
He and other students of the institution along with their teachers witnessed the devastation from the rooftop before jumping onto another building.
Many of those injured broke their bones and received cuts from smashed glasses after jumping off the buildings.
Charred buildings and vehicles are seen in the wake of a massive fire at Churihatta of Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove
Muezzin Shah Alam said he and the students went to the rooftop to save their lives.
“We saw people in flames running away, crying for help. The students are still panicked,” he said.
The muezzin, who has been in the area for 12 years, said the residents asked the owners to remove the warehouses repeatedly but no-one paid heed.
Another resident, Md Abdul Halim, said he saw flames first near the restaurant.
“The cars then caught fire. It spread to the buildings later,” he said.
Trader Bulbul Ahmed from a nearby street said he thought it was an explosion of an electric transformer.
Abdul Alim, who resides in a building on Ajgar Ali Lane, said the vehicles were stuck on the street and it was difficult to even walk when he went to buy breads from the restaurant just before the fire started.
Md Sohel, a witness, said, “The fire spread from one car to another instantly. The fire was so intense that a couple and their baby on a rickshaw died on the spot.”
‘PUNISHMENT FOR INACTION’
Fire service’s Debashish said chemicals stored in the warehouses helped the fire spread in the blink of an eye.
“Plenty of body spray, shaving foam, aerosol and similar products there. It needs to checked whether flammable article spread in the form of gas from these,” he told bdnews24.com.
“Maybe the explosion was caused because of that reason (gaseous flammable articles), which happens also when gas accumulates in a locked room,” he added.
Besides the raw plastic materials and deodorant canisters in Wahed Manjil, there were warehouses of different chemicals, including highly flammable resin, in the basements of the other burnt-down buildings.
Architect Iqbal Habib said the devastation by the Chawkbazar fire could have been averted had the recommendations of the Nimtali fire committee been acted upon.
“There goes a saying that you need to be a man of action, not words. That’s where the failure lies. And it is at such extreme a level now that we have failed to force the government to do it (follow the recommendations) in nine years despite recurrences. People are also as reluctant as (government),” he told bdnews24.com.
“It is nothing but suicide when you leave everything up to God instead of trying to prevent things from happening. These killings are happening again and again because of this fatalistic view.
“These are killings caused by our inaction, reluctance and fatalism,” he added.
Shakil Newaz, a director at the fire service, also recalled the Nimtali fire while speaking about the Chawkbazar tragedy.
“It has taught us a good lesson, given us a wake-up call,” he said.
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