After sending the dead and the injured in ambulances, the Fire Service used a freezer truck to carry the bodies
Published : 01 Mar 2024, 03:06 AM
Immediately after the seven-storey Green Cozy Cottage building with several large restaurants and shops on Bailey Road in Dhaka caught fire on Thursday night, people trapped inside desperately tried to flee through a window by using ladders provided by locals.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence joined the rescue efforts minutes later and said they rescued five people injured in the fire that started around 9:45pm.
As dozens were rescued while the operation continued along with the efforts to douse the blaze, bodies started to arrive at Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 11:45pm.
Mohidul Islam, a sub-inspector from Shahbagh Police Station, said around 1am that he saw and counted 11 bodies at the hospital.
Doctor Alauddin then put the death toll at 20, with the number of survivors getting lower than the dead.
The bodies were first being taken to No. 7 observation ward, and then to the mortuary.
Sounds of sirens continued as ambulances kept coming while relatives wailed in pain of losing loved ones. Security personnel were blowing whistles repeatedly to control the growing crowds.
A young man needed his friends’ help to enter the hospital as he was crying.
When another friend already at the hospital informed him that his loved one was no more, he fell to the ground and started wailing.
In this chaotic scene, a woman was searching for her sister Kashfia, who went to Kachchi Bhai restaurant in the building with her husband and three daughters to attend a programme. None of them could be reached as their phones were switched off.
The relatives started crying as security personnel were pointing to the morgue whenever they were asked about the victims.
Korban Ali was frantically searching for his daughter Riya, who was scheduled to fly back to Malaysia on Mar 2 to complete her last semester in fashion designing.
Riya took her younger sister Arisha, a student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, and cousin Limu, a student of City College, to a restaurant in the Cozy Cottage building.
Korban started acting crazy as he found the three girls – all dead in the morgue.
Golam Mohiuddin found his wife Lutfun Nahar, a teacher of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, and their daughter Jannati Tazreen, a student of BRAC University, among the bodies in the morgue.
He regretted his decision to take them to Kacchi Bhai after seeing a dentist for Lutfun Nahar.
Witnesses said the queue was long at Kacchi Bhai because of a 50 percent discount offered by the biriyani shop.
Among the dead at the hospital were Nahiyan and Lamisa, two students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Lamisa’s father is an additional deputy inspector general of police.
A group of students from Jagannath University were searching for a transport while crying as they wanted to take the body of their friend Nurul Islam to his village home, after finding him in the morgue.
At 1:24am, the Fire Service’s freezer truck arrived and the workers started to unload the bodies one after another – in total 10, triggering another wave of cries.
Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen announced at 2am that 43 people died in the fire, and 22 others were fighting for their lives.
Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun said he saw another body at Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital, taking the toll to 44.