In Bangladesh, a building fire results in 43 fatalities and several injuries

Health officials said that a fire that broke out late on Thursday at a seven-story building located in a posh neighborhood of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, resulted in at least 43 fatalities and several injuries.

After seeing the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and a nearby burn hospital, Bangladesh’s health minister Samanta Lal Sen told AFP, “So far 43 people have died from the fire.”

Sen said that the primary burn hospital in the city was treating at least forty wounded patients.

According to Mohammad Shihab, an officer with the fire department, the famed biriyani restaurant on Bailey Road in Dhaka started the fire at 9:50 p.m. on Thursday (1550 GMT), and it swiftly spread to the top levels, trapping a large number of people.

According to him, the fire was contained in two hours by firefighters.

According to a fire department statement, they successfully rescued seventy-five persons.

In addition to a few clothes and cell phone stores, the Bailey Road building mostly contains eateries.

“The first time we saw smoke shooting through the stairs, we were on the sixth story. Many folks hurried up the steps. We descended the structure via a water pipe. As they leaped from above, several of us were hurt,” Sohel, the restaurant manager, said.

Others cried out for assistance as they were stuck on the rooftop.

“Thank God. My wife and the kids are among the ladies and children we are sending down. Every man is on the rooftop. The fire department is here to support us. Environmental science professor Kamruzzaman Majumdar commented on Facebook, “Fifty yet to be down.”

Bangladesh has a high rate of apartment building and industry complex fires as a result of the weak implementation of safety regulations.

In July 2021, a fire that spread through a food processing business claimed the lives of at least 52 individuals, many of whom were children.