150 shanties gutted in city

A woman wails miserably beside the site of a devastating fire that engulfed 150 shanties, including her own one, in a slum at Rupnagar under Pallabi in the city yesterday.Photo: STAR

Around 150 shanties were gutted at a slum in Rupnagar and a plastic factory was burned down at Kamrangirchar in separate incidents of fire in the city yesterday.
Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD) officials said no casualties were reported from the incidents till 5:30pm.
In Rupnagar under Pallabi Police Station, the fire broke out at Arambagh Bosti around 3:30pm, and nine units of firefighters brought the blaze under control at about 5:00pm.
Police and locals said the fire originating from an oven at a kitchen burned down around 150 shanties.
The dwellers said they could not safe their cash money and other valuables as the blaze engulfed the entire slum in a few minutes.
Slum dwelling garment worker Anwara Begum said the fire gutted her Tk 10,000 that she was paid as salary by her factory.
"We just saved our lives," said Mukta Begum, another resident of the slum.
Deputy Director Abdur Rashid of the FSCD told The Daily Star the fire originated from the kitchen, and it gutted the shanties within a short time.
In the other incident, a plastic factory caught fire at about 3:00pm, and six units of the firefighters fought for about an hour to douse the flame.
The FSCD officials said the fire originated from an abandoned burning cigarette butt, and later it engulfed the roadside plastic factory.
Police and locals said the tin-shed factory was anonymous.