DNCC Market fire: Fire shatters Yusuf’s livelihood yet again

Md Yusuf and his three brothers managed to fight back against all odds after a fire had destroyed their six shops at DNCC market in 2017.

But this time, they have no other means to earn their livelihood after they have lost all their shops again in today’s fire.

They along with eight staff members used to run the tin-shed general stores at the Gulshan-1 market where around 211 tin-shed business establishments were completely razed in the fire that ripped through the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) kitchen market around 5:48am today.

Today’s fire gutted all the valuables including food items and stationeries worth of around Tk 1 crore at their shops. Among the six stores, they are owner of one shop while the rest five are rented, Yusuf told this correspondent at the spot.

A resident of Shahjadpur under Gulshan Police Station, Yusuf and his brothers lost around Tk 2.5 crore worth valuables in 2017 fire.

Yusuf, in the year 2000, joined his two elder brothers who had been running general stores at the market since 1992.

At the age of 40, he now sees no means to overcome this lose.

When the fire broke out this morning, he was in his sleep and a local businessman informed him about the fire over a phone call.

Immediately he rushed to the market, the place he left yesterday at 10:30pm, like any other day.

He and his brothers want the DNCC authorities quickly rebuilt the tin-shed shops and install firefighting equipments including special water sources.

On January 3, 2017, a devastating fire reduced much of the DNCC market at Gulshan-1 to rubble. No one was killed or hurt in that blaze but over 300 shops were gutted and a portion of the market collapsed on impact, causing losses worth several hundred of crores of taka.