Fire at BRDB building

A fire unit conducts a rescue operation at Bangladesh Rural Development Board Bhaban that went up in flames yesterday. The fire was brought under control at about 4:30pm. Photo: Amran Hossain

The Bangladesh Rural Development Board Bhaban went up in flames yesterday burning into ashes the storeroom in its basement in capital's Karwan Bazar.
Witnesses said they heard a bang coming from the basement at about 2:00pm and saw the stairway of the seven-storey structure getting covered in clouds of smoke rapidly.
Eight units of fire service and civil defence doused the fire around 4:30pm.
Though the BRDB office has no fire fighting mechanism with illegally installed electric sub-station in the basement, the fire is primarily suspected to have broken out from the sub-station.
BRDB sources said all except its three employees on the 6th floor managed to get out of the Palli Bhaban. The fire fighters rescued the three around 3:15pm.
BRDB electrician Nurul Alam Sabuj said, "Power supply on some floors got snapped soon after the bang. I was asked to go downstairs to check out the situation there."
"As I was going to the basement from the first floor, I saw thick black smoke billowing out of the stairway in the basement."
The bang caused panic among the people prompting them to come out of the building quickly.
Assistant Rural Development Officer AKM Ayub Ali, who got trapped on the rooftop, told The Daily Star, "When I, along with my two colleagues, tried to get down from the 6th floor, a cloud of smoke covered us. I fell down on the stairway on the third floor."
"I managed to go to the rooftop with the help of my colleagues from where fire fighters rescued us."
Maj Sheikh Mohammad Shahjalal, director (Operation) of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said vehicles and valuables in the basement could be saved as they were able to control the fire confining it to the storeroom.
The official said documents, electric cables and old furniture kept in the storeroom were gutted in the flame.
BRDB Director General Mohammad Humyun Khalid said there was no casualty as most people went out of the building to offer prayers and have lunch at the time.
The LGRD and cooperatives ministry formed a five-member committee headed by Joint Secretary Abdul Mannan to investigate into the incident and ascertain the extent of damage. The committee was asked to submit report within a week.
Another five-member probe committee headed by the BRDB director (Administration) was also formed and asked to submit report.
NO FIRE-FIGHTING MECHANISM
The Palli Bhaban has been using the building's basement as a warehouse for scrap vehicles, stationary materials and site for an electric sub-station though it is designated for car parking.
Regarding fire-fighting mechanism, Humayun Khalid said, "It is true that there are lapses on our part too. Fire-fighting system has never been installed at the building."
"Electric sub-station is not allowable in the basement of a building as per the law," said an official of Power Development Board requesting anonymity.
Though the BRDB authorities earmarks a small space of the basement for car parking, the jeep of its DG and other vehicles of officials remain parked prominently on the street as usual.
"My jeep is parked on the street as I have to move frequently," said Khalid.