Fire at Dhaka airport tamed, ‘no harm reported’

The fire that broke out inside Bangladesh’s prime airport Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport today has been tamed before sustaining any major damage.

It was brought under control around 3:15pm, nearly after two hours of efforts of 10 units, said Mizanur Rahman, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters.

All activities at the airport remained suspended following the fire, Nure Azam Miah, officer-in-charge of Airport Police Station, told The Daily Star.

No major damage was incurred, director of the airport, Group Captain Kazi Iqbal Karim told The Daily Star. “We suspect the fire originated from the Air India office.”

Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn) Assistant Superintendent Aftab Uddin told reporters in a briefing that the fire was believed to have been caused by an electric malfunction in Air India office.

Civil aviation authority’s Director Iqbalur Rahim told The Daily Star that the airport suffered little inconvenience for the fire. “There was no schedule collapse.”

The authority’s Public Relation Officer AKM Rezaul Karim told The Daily Star that by 4:00pm, the situation had returned to normalcy and the evacuated passengers were being taken inside the airport.

“No flight schedule was cancelled, however, a flight of Thai Airways was delayed briefly,” he said.

Fire service’s Director (operations) Maj Shakil Newaz said a three-member probe body, headed by a deputy director of fire service, has been formed to investigate the cause of fire.

Tailback on Airport Road

A huge traffic gridlock was created on the Airport Road in the follow-up of the fire.

Uttara-bound commuters were suffering as the road stretching from Khilkhet to Airport intersection was experiencing severe gridlock since 4:00pm, our correspondent reports from the spot.

Thousands of people suffered for several hours for the gridlock and that was continuing till filing of the report around 6:00pm, according to our correspondent.