A child’s charred body was recovered from the debris of a devastating blaze at a city slum in the Moghbazar area on Saturday morning. About 400 shanties were burnt, rendering about thousand people homeless.
The deceased has been identified as Sabuj, 3, son of Hashmat Ali and Matina Khatun.
The fire broke out from a rickshaw garage at Madhubagh, Moghbazar at around 8:15am, Mashiur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Ramna Police Station, told The New Nation. Fire Service and Civil Defense Senior Station Officer Mohammad Ali confirmed the time.
Soon it spread from the rickshaw garage to the adjacent shanties. Locals feared that about 400 houses had been gutted.
Police primarily suspected three children to have died. But later they corrected the statement saying that one child had died.
Twelve fire engines extinguished the inferno with the help of the local people at around 9:15am, he said. It took about an hour. About 1000 people live at the slum of more than 400 shanties, he said.
Dhaka Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Yusuf Harun said that the family of the deceased had been paid Tk 20,000 from his office. The other affected people would be given Tk 3,000 each.
“The payment will be made today (Sunday). Until then, the office of the Deputy Commissioner will feed them.”
A four-member committee with Fire Brigade Headquarters’s Deputy Director (Administration) Farid Uddin as head has been formed to probe the causes of the fire and to estimate the damage.
Garment worker Tania Begum, one of the victim, said all furniture of her house were burnt.
Another dweller Hasina Begum, who works as a domestic help, said that she lost her everything. She said she had no idea where to live and what to eat now.
