200 shanties gutted

Fumes cover the area as fire fighters continue their efforts to douse a fire at Chandmari slum in Narayanganj city that gutted some 200 shanties yesterday.Photo: STAR

Around 200 shanties were gutted as a fire swept through a slum in Narayanganj city yesterday.
At least 10 people were injured while trying to put out the blaze, Officer-in-Charge Saidul Islam of Fatulla Model Police Station said quoting witnesses.
He said the fire broke out at Chandmari slum around 5:30am.
Fire brigade sources said the fire might have originated from an electric short circuit at a jute depot located in the slum
Eight fire-fighting units from Mandalpara and Hajiganj rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze after two hours of frantic efforts.
Md Saiful Islam, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Narayanganj, said a number of jute depots located in the slum helped the fire spread fast to the adjacent shanties.
Transport movement on one side of the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road remained suspended for two hours following the incident.
FIRE GUTS 40 KARWAN BAZAR SHANTIES
Our staff correspondent reports: A fire at Karwan Bazar Railway slum gutted around 40 shanties and some rooms of a house in adjoining Christianpara, leaving at least five people injured, in the early hours yesterday.
Fire service sources suspect that the fire originated either from an earthen stove or a mosquito coil around 2:30am. Six firefighting units brought the blaze under control after a one-hour effort, added the sources.
The slum dwellers said they could not save their belongings from the fire that engulfed the mud, wood and bamboo-made shanties before firefighters reached the spot.