Launch blaze at Sadarghat extinguished after two hours

A fire has broken out on a launch docked at Dhaka’s Sadarghat.

The blaze started on board the ‘MV Advance-9’, which was docked near the launch terminal mosque, around 10:45 am on Sunday, the fire service said.

Seven firefighting units were able to put the fire out around 1 pm, said Ershad Hossain, an official at the fire service Control Room.

The launch arrived at the Sadarghat carrying passengers around 4 am, said a BIWTA official at the Sadarghat named ‘Alamgir’.

The passengers disembarked and repairs were underway on the vessel’s air conditioning system when the fire started, he said.

“The owner of the launch is named Nizam Uddin,” Alamgir said. “The way the fire spread, the damage is likely to be significant.”

Faruk, a worker on another launch, said that work was being done on an air conditioner in a VIP cabin on the second floor of the launch.

Soon after the fire sparked it spread to the back of the vessel.

All the other launches docked nearby were moved away, Faruk said.

The fire from the central air conditioning system gutted two rooms on the third floor and damaged the roof as well.

There were no casualties from the fire, the fire service said.