Several witnesses said the fire originated from electric oven while some others said it was sourced from electric short-circuit.

The home ministry in order to probe yesterday's fire incident formed a committee led by Fire Service and Civil Defence director general.

The authorities could not identify reasons until filing of the report at 9:00pm while firefighters did not want to make any comment until their enquiry ends.

According to witnesses and employees, the fire might have been originated from one of the two offices-- Bengal Carpet or Jamuna Oil Company Ltd-- located on the first floor and later engulfed the whole building.

"I first noticed smoke at Jamuna Oil Company. We switched off the main electricity line when it started to engulf the area," Mohiuddin, a peon of Nationwide Communication Ltd, a private firm on the first floor, said.

However, according to Sadhon, an employee of the Bangla daily Amar Desh, the fire originated from Bengal Carpet office.

According to Major Siddique, who visited the building after the fire was extinguished, the fire engulfed the floors due to a number of IPS used by different offices.