Fire engulfs warehouse in Mirpur

Three days after a massive fire in Rupnagar slum, another blaze engulfed a garment scrap warehouse at the capital's Mirpur yesterday. 

The fire broke out around 1:23pm and spread to the adjacent building of Khan Apparel Ltd at Mirpur-10. After frantic efforts, 15 firefighting units doused the blaze around 5pm, according to fire service.

Two persons, Md Hossain and Israfil, were injured in the incident.

Lt Col Zillur Rahman, director (operations and maintenance) of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters, said the fire broke out at the scrap warehouse and later spread to three adjoining buildings.

He said there was not enough space to enter the warehouse building to control the fire. Besides, it was difficult to douse the blaze because of the goods stored there.

"Khan Apparel has a five-storey building in front of a slum, and the two-storey scrap warehouse is beside the building…Both structures lack any firefighting measures," the official added.

Meanwhile, fire service formed a four-member committee to investigate cause of the fire. The committee was directed to submit a report in ten working days.

On Wednesday, as many as 400 shanties were gutted after a devastating fire broke out at Rupnagar slum, leaving thousands of slum dwellers homeless.