Another fire ravages Mirpur's Chalantika slum

A fire has swept through a slum in Dhaka's Mirpur-7, five months after another blaze gutted over 2,000 shanties in the same settlement.

The fire broke out at around 4:15 am on Friday, according to the fire service.

Later, 15 units of the fire service put out the flames after over an hour's efforts around 5:45 am, said Russel Sikdar, duty officer of the fire service's control room.

But the dumping work at the scene went on for some time afterwards, according to Lima Khanam, another official of the control room.

A large number of shanties were destroyed in the incident, she said. But the authorities are yet to put a figure on the financial losses caused by the fire.

The fire service has convened a five-strong panel to ascertain the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage.

A massive fire raged through the Chalantika slum, stretching from Mirpur's Chalantika intersection to Rupnagar Residential Area, on Aug 16, 2019.

It destroyed almost all of 2,000-2,500 shanties and injured at least four people.