Fire at Dhaka New Super Market doused after some 27hrs
The massive fire that broke out at the capital's New Super Market, adjacent to Dhaka College, around 5:40am on Saturday morning (15 April) has been completely doused.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence were able to extinguish the blaze, that devastated the three-storey building housing some 1,300 shops, at around 9am on Sunday (16 April) – some 27 hours after the fire had started.
Now the authorities are working to clear the debris. As per fire officials, it took this long to completely douse the fire due to the large number of flammable materials (mostly clothing items) in the market.
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Addressing the development to the press, Assistant Director of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Md Akhtaruzzaman Liton said, "There is now no fire left inside the Dhaka New Super Market.
"We, following primary investigation, think that the fire originated on the second floor and then spread to the third floor."
Meanwhile, the shops on the east side of the New Market-Mirpur road resumed business yesterday afternoon whereas the New Market shops, after an announcement of indefinite closure, opened this morning.
Besides, the shops in Chandrima Super Market, adjacent to Dhaka New Super Market, also started sales since morning.
A total of 28 firefighting units and teams of the Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force took part in the effort to douse the fire. The fire was brought under control around 9:10am yesterday.
Some 32 people, including firefighters, fell sick from the heavy smoke while firefighters were trying to douse the blaze.
On 4 April morning, a massive fire broke out at Bangabazar Shopping Complex in Dhaka, burning several thousand shops to ashes. A total of six adjacent markets were also burnt.
The fire was doused on 7 April, over 75 hours after it broke out.
