Staff Reporter:
The six-storey building in the city’s Shahjadpur that caught fire yesterday afternoon, killing four per-sons, was not built following the plan of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) as well as the fire safety rules.
“The building was not built as per the RAJUK-approved plan. There was no fire safety plan and fire safety measures in the building. It has a narrow staircase, which is only three feet wide and the windows with the stair were closed with glasses for which the smoke could not come out,” Assistant Director, Dhaka of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Kazi Nazmuzzaman said at a briefing.
He said the fire broke out on the second floor of the six-storey building at 12:17pm yesterday and was brought under control within half an hour at 13:04pm by two fire fighting engines.
The building has a hardware shop on the first floor, a beauty parlor for women on the second and a resi-dential hotel from the third floor to sixth floor, he said.
Soon after the fire broke out and smoke engulfed the entire building, the residents of the hotel tried to reach sky parlor of the building, but they could not do that as the rooftop gate was locked and they died due to suffocation, he said.
They could have survived from the fire if the smoke came out of the building through the windows of the staircases, he said, adding that but the windows were closed with glasses.
He said they recovered four male bodies from the staircases and a toilet on the sixth floor and handed over those to police.
The cause behind the fire and extent of damage could not be said without investigation, he said, adding that an investigation committee will be formed to probe the fire incident.
One of the four deceased was identified as Miron, 45, said duty officer of the fire control room Rafi Al Faruk.
