Fire in Bangladesh shopping center claims at least 43 lives
At least 43 people were killed and dozens injured when a fire destroyed a shopping mall in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, late Thursday, officials said.
“So far we know that 43 have died,” Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, the health minister, told reporters outside a hospital where some of the injured were being treated. “The condition of those injured is not good,” he added.
At least 75 people were injured, the fire brigade said. Some were treated at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mr Sen said.
The fire broke out around 9.51 pm on the second floor of the mall, which houses a popular biryani restaurant. It quickly spread to the rest of the seven-story building, fire officials said, as it tore through a clothing store on the third floor.
It took crews at least two hours to extinguish the fire, officials said.
Video footage showed most of the floors charred by the flames. A firefighter could be seen atop a fire ladder attempting to extinguish a small fire that was still burning near one of the upper floors.
The shopping center on Bailey Road is home to a mix of eateries and shops. Nearly every floor has a restaurant and most have gas cylinders, a fire official told a television news reporter. He added that the cylinders may have played a role in the rapid spread of the fire.
The mall is a popular spot on Thursdays, the end of the working week in Bangladesh.
Alamgir Hossain, assistant director at the Fire Department, told The New York Times that a restaurant called Kacci Bhai had offered a special on Thursday night.
Mass casualty fires and industrial disasters, especially in garment factories, are a recurring problem in Bangladesh. The country of 170 million people’s steady economic growth has been a regional success story in recent years, but human rights and labor organizations have long raised concerns about poor working conditions and workplace safety measures.
The worst disaster occurred in 2013, when the collapse of an eight-story garment factory killed more than 1,100 people. In 2021, a factory fire in the town of Narayanganj killed at least 51 people.