Sagar Biswas :At least 25 people were injured when a devastating fire broke out due to leakage in the gas pipeline at a multi-storey building in the city’s Banani area in the small hours of Friday. All the injured were tenants of the flats housed in the building. They were injured while trying to come out of the building for safety. Of them, three have been admitted to a Gulshan hospital with burn injuries.Police and local residents have said that the incident occurred due to negligence of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited. The Titas authorities did not pay any heed, though local residents complained about the pipe leakage a few days back.”Nobody was killed in the fire. We have rescued all the residents of the building. The injured were sent to a Gulshan hospital,” Director [Operations] of Fire Service and Civil Defence Major Shakil Newaz said.The Fire Service Director said that they have launched an intensive investigation to know whether the explosion and fire were originated from gas line leakage. “We have formed a three-member committee to conduct the investigation,” he said. According to eyewitnesses, the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the six-storey building ‘Milestone’ at holding no: 9, road no: 23, Banani residential area under Banani Police Station at around 2:00am. After a big blast, the fire quickly spread throughout the building in the twinkling of an eye. Some walls of the rooms in third and fourth floors broke down due to huge impact of the explosion. At the same time, doors and window-glasses of the adjacent buildings were blown up following the massive explosion, the witnesses said.There are 20 flats in the building. The garage is situated in the ground floor. The residents of the flats were asleep at that time. They wake up due to sound of the big blast. The panic-stricken residents at first took shelter on the rooftop. Being informed, 15 firefighting units of Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control after a hectic effort for about two hours. Later, the Fire Fighters brought some 25 residents outside of the building defying the flames spread from the third to the sixth floor. None was permitted to enter the house till the time of filing the report yesterday evening.”The residents of the building are restricted to enter their houses as we are still not sure enough whether the building is safe for residing or not,” Rafiqul Islam, Assistant Commissioner, Dhaka Metropolitan Police [Gulshan Zone], said. Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation Annisul Huq expressed severe discontent over the situation while visiting the spot yesterday. “I’m trying to get the real story. If necessary, I’ll call Managing Director of Titas Gas. If they have any fault, legal action will be taken against Titas authorities after an investigation,” the DNCC Mayor said.Apart from supervising the fire-fighting effort, the Mayor also joined hand with the rescue operation. He tried to communicate with the trapped residents using a hand-held mike from the roof of a nearby building. He also went inside the building after the blaze was doused.Meanwhile, the owners of the building Shamshul Alam and his sister Nayer Rahman alleged that they had lodged complaint to Titas authorities about three days ago about the leakage in the pipeline. They [owners] requested the Titas Gas officials for three times [in morning, evening and 10:52pm on Friday] to repair the leakage. In the last time, the officials of Titas Gas said they could repair the leakage if the owners of the building employ some labourers. But the explosion occurred in the night.Owners of the building, living there since 2010, further said that they would file compensation suit against Titas Gas and Transmission Company Limited.Echoing the same, the local residents said that digging works of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority [DWASA] were going on in the area since last week. The locals saw bubbles in the water, which were supposed to be created from the leakage in the gas pipe line. But the Titas authorities did not pay any attention, the locals alleged.When contacted, Director [Operation] of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited HM Ali Ashraf told The New Nation, “We have taken departmental action against the person, who had asked the building owners to engage labourers for leakage repairing.”Explaining the reason behind the blast, he said, “After preliminary investigation, we have found that the gas had made a way upward the building through an adjacent sewerage pipe. The DWASA never informed us about the pipeline leakage during the digging.”In the meanwhile, the incidents of gas pipeline explosions have alarmingly increased in the recent days allegedly due to negligence of Titas authorities. Four members of a family had died following a gas explosion in their rented house inside a seven-storey building in the city’s Uttara on February 26.Besides, two children, who were burnt in gas pipe explosion at a residential house in Uttara on February 26, succumbed to their injuries on February 27 at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital intensive care unit. Three others were also injured in the same blast. In another incident, seven people including six of a family were injured in a fire that broke out due to gas line explosion at a house in the city’s Senpara area on September 27 last year.
