‘Our negligence’ contributed to death of firefighter, says home advisor at funeral prayers

“It was our negligence that allowed the truck to enter the area. We shouldn’t have allowed the truck in that area,” he says

Home Advisor Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has taken part in the funeral prayers for firefighter Shoyanur Zaman Nayan, who was run over and killed by a truck while taking part in the efforts to tame the blaze at the Secretariat.

Nayan was brought to Dhaka due to his professional skills and his death was, in a way, due to the ‘negligence’ of the administration, Jahangir said in his remarks to the media afterwards.

The funeral prayers for Nayan were held at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Dhaka’s Bangabazar at 2pm on Thursday. Before that, Fire Service personnel and the home advisor paid their respects at the coffin with flowers.

Nineteen units of the Fire Service worked to extinguish a fire that sparked at the Secretariat – the nerve centre of the country’s administration – at 1:45am on Thursday.

Nayan was taking part in the operations and was crossing the road to connect a water hose when he was run over and critically injured by a truck. The truck then fled the scene.

The injured firefighter was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Nayan hailed from Rangpur’s Mithapukur. Though his main workplace was the Biswanath Fire Station in Sylhet, he had been assigned to the Tejgaon Fire Station.

Regarding the situation, the home advisor said: “Allah has granted him the status of a martyr. He was a very good firefighter and was brought here to join a special team.”

The home advisor then prayed for Nayan and asked Allah to have mercy on him.

Traffic was halted on the road in front of the Secretariat when the fire started and police and army personnel were on alert. Many have questioned how a truck could have sped through the area under the circumstances.

Jahangir said, “A truck passing through the area is our own negligence. A truck should not have gone through there. But we have caught the truck driver. We will, of course, bring him to justice.”

Members of the public caught truck driver Belal Hossain Sumon and his assistant Farhad in the Public Works Department area after they fled the scene. They then handed him over to the police.

Mohammad Khalid Mansur, chief of Shahbagh Police Station, said that a case is being processed against Sumon, 35, and Farhad, 20, over the incident.

A reporter asked Jahangir whether the fire at the Secretariat was a ‘failure’ of the home ministry. He responded:

“One of ours is dead. That is our failure. Many people will forget this, but his parents will not. We will make sure that we do what needs to be done in order to ensure that his parents are well.”

Another journalist said that an advisor and a leader of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement were seeing a ‘conspiracy’ behind the fire and asked whether the home minister shared their views.

“I cannot say anything before an investigation is carried out,” he said.

“We have formed a high-powered investigation committee. When the findings of the committee are made available, we will know how the fire started.

In response to another question, he said:

“I cannot say how long it should have taken to put out the fire. It depends on the water supply. There are many obstacles.”

“But they all tried their best. Nineteen Fire Service units worked together. As a result, it was brought under control.

After the funeral prayers, the home advisor spoke to Nayan’s parents.

Nayan joined the fire brigade as a firefighter in the 61st Batch in 2022. He hailed from Atpania village in Rangpur’s Mithapukur Upazila. The 24-year-old is the younger of two siblings.