‘Small’ fire damages EVMs in EC building basement in Dhaka; probes open

A fire that erupted in the basement of the Election Commission’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Agargaon has damaged electronic voting machines or EVMs.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 Sept 2019, 06:37 PM
Updated : 8 Sept 2019, 08:56 PM

The NID database server is safe, according an EC official.

Six units of the Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the scene to douse the fire that started around 11:05pm on Sunday, an official at its control room said.

“It’s a small fire,” duty officer Farhad Ul Alam said and added they were yet to extinguish it.

“Smoke is still billowing,” he said at 12:30am on Monday.

Six more units and military personnel, who are trained to fight fire, joined in later.

The fire was brought under control after around an hour, officials said.

No casualties were reported.

There were electronic voting machines in the basement, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station OC Jan-e-Alam Munshi told bdnews24.com.

The fire “might have damaged some EVMs”, EC NID wing Director General Brig Gen Saidul Islam said.

He ruled out any possibility of the fire damaging the NID database, which has its server on the 10th floor of the 12-storey office block.   

In 2015, a fire in a building next to the Islamic Foundation in the same area disrupted NID services when the related wing was situated there. It was later moved to the new headquarters “Nirbachan Bhaban”.

Saidul said the fire was brought under control within an hour. “We don’t fear any big damage,” he said.

They initially suspect the fire originated from electric short circuit, the EC official said.

PROBES OPEN

Fire Service Deputy Director Debashish Bardhan said the EC and the Fire Service have formed two committees to investigate the incident.

The three-strong EC committee led by Additional Secretary Mokhlesur Rahman has three days to report while the Fire Service committee with as many members got two weeks. 

There were around 4,500 EVMs in the basement, Debashish said, but added they were yet to assess the extent of the damage.

Paper cartons stored in the basement besides EVMs caused more smoke, the fire service official said.

Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar visited the building around 1:30am.

On being asked by a reporter, he said he did not know whether the fire extinguishers of the building were operational or there was any flaw in the fire safety system.

“The investigation committee will find it out,” he said.   

Besides assessing the extent of damage and the origin of the fire, it will also recommend ways to prevent such incidents, he said.

The election commissioner hailed the firefighters for their efforts to control the fire “quickly”.

He said Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda was abroad but was in constant communication with officials over the incident.