Bailey Road fire originated from short circuit, fanned by gas leakage: Fire Service
Fire Service, Rajuk blame building owners for violating building rules
The deadly Bailey Road shopping mall fire originated from an electrical short circuit at Cha Chumuk cafe on the ground floor, finds a probe of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
"We have found that the fire originated from an electric short circuit at the ground floor cafe. Later, the fire spread throughout the entire building due to a leak in a cooking gas cylinder there," Lt Col Tajul Islam, director (operation) of the Fire Service, told reporters today.
On 29 February, a fire at the Green Cozy Cottage shopping mall, housing a number of restaurants, claimed 46 lives.
A five-member probe body, led by Tajul, recently submitted its report to the authorities.
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Fire Service says the building completely lacked any fire safety plan and failed to meet all criteria for addressing high fire risks.
The building was found to have been constructed in violation of the rules and not in accordance with the Rajuk approved plan.
"Building regulations mandate secure storage of gas cylinders, either in designated cabinets or underground. However, gas cylinders were found stored along the staircase – the building's only entry and exit point," Tajul said.
This not just created an obstacle to safe evacuation but the cylinder leakages also caused the fire to spread faster, he added.
According to him, the fire incident could have been avoided if the owner had followed the rules.
There were hardly any fire safety measures in the building, except for having just a handful of fire extinguishers.
Most importantly, there were no fire exits at the building.
Additionally, more than half of the building's rooftop was rented out to a restaurant.
Rajuk approved the first five floors of the eight-storey building, including the basement, for commercial use and the remaining three floors for residential use, finds the probe.
No permission was granted for restaurants, but the owners used the building entirely for commercial purposes, even renting out spaces to eight restaurants.
Although fire fighters found a water reservoir in the building's basement, designed to provide water for fire fighting, the probe committee found that the reservoir lacked enough water.
Both the fire service and Rajuk have blamed the building owners for the fire.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is now investigating the case.
Following the incident, six people have been arrested, but the building owners are still on the run, said Md Anisur Rahman, special superintendent of police at the CID Dhaka Metro South Unit.
