UNB, Dhaka: After nearly two hours of hectic efforts, firefighters brought the fire that broke out at Hasina Market in the city’s Karwan Bazar area under control around 9:55 pm on Sunday. “Anyway, the blaze is now under control,” inspector Atiqul Islam at the Fire Service control room told the UNB correspondent on the spot around 10 pm. The fire might have originated from a burning cigarette butt or any candle light at a shop of the tin-shed double-storey market that housed nearly 200 shops around 7:55pm, said some shop owners and employees of the market. Mohammad Ismail Hossain, president of Uttar Karwan Bazar Bebsayee Jana Kalyan Samity, said the market had 181 shops and the flame burned down 178 of those. Around 10:30 pm, Major Shakil Newaz of the Fire Service and Civil Defence officially announced that they fully tamed the inferno. He said ultimately 26 units of firefighters put out the flame with the help of local people. Firefighters, however, said the drive to extinguish the fire got disrupted due to the onlookers’ overcrowding and squally wind. “Had there been no wind during the fire, we would have been able to put it out much earlier,” Shakil said. Asked about the cause of the fire, firefighters declined to make any comment saying that it was too early to say anything about that. Atiqul said the fire broke out at 7.55 pm and it soon raged through the market, just behind Janata Tower on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, burning down a good number of shops. They also could not immediately confirm whether any one got trapped in any shop of the market. Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan visited the spot around 8:30pm.
