Oxygen depletion suspected as two workers die inside building’s water tank in Fatullah

Doctors say the men died of suffocation caused by oxygen deprivation

Two men have died while working inside a water reservoir in an under-construction building in Narayanganj’s Fatullah. Doctors believe they may have died from inhaling toxic fumes or losing consciousness due to oxygen depletion.

The incident took place at a construction site in Bholail Geddar Bazar of Kashipur Union.

The dead have been identified as Delowar Mridha, 35, a mason from Patuakhali, and Md Rana, 22, a garment worker from Gaibandha.

While Rana usually worked in a factory, he had joined Delowar for masonry work on his day off.

Both lived in rented houses in the Bholail area.

According to Abdul Halim, senior station officer of Fatullah Fire Station, the accident occurred while shuttering work was ongoing on the second floor of the building.

Rana first entered the ground-floor reserve tank to retrieve pieces of wood. When he failed to resurface and fell unconscious inside, Delowar climbed down to rescue him but also fell unconscious, according to the Fire Service.

"The construction of the tank was incomplete. In such confined spaces, oxygen levels drop significantly and the air can become toxic. We suspect they lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen," said Halim.

Firefighters recovered the duo and rushed them to the Narayanganj 300-bed Hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.

Shahadat Hossain of the hospital’s emergency department stated that preliminary observations suggest the men died of suffocation caused by oxygen deprivation.

Fatullah Model Police chief Mohammad Mahbub Alam confirmed that the bodies have been kept at the hospital.

Police are currently in the process of taking legal action regarding the incident, he said.