Staff Reporter :
An open hearing of the employees whose offices were in the eighth to tenth floors at FR Tower in Banani will be held today to discover the causes of how did the fire originate and where from?
The nine-member probe committee of Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief will hold the hearing at a police control room near the FR Tower from 10:00am to 12:00pm today, said Faizur Rahman, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
Faizur Rahman said after two separate probe committees formed by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and Ministry of Home visited the fire-ravaged FR Tower and inspected the floors that were most affected.
After inspecting eighth to twelfth floors, the committees briefed the media in front of the FR Tower yesterday morning and said the fire mainly damaged the 8th, 9th and 10th floors and only found evidence of smoke on the two other floors.
The committees are yet to discover how the fire originated or from where it started, said Faizur Rahman.
The probe committee of the Disaster Relief and Management ministry said also that they found some firefighting equipment on the affected floors, but they were not used.
Meanwhile, Tarun Kanti Sikder, a member of the probe committee formed by the Home Ministry, said they found the fire exit to be only 24 inches.
Asked about the owner of the tower, Tarun Kanti Sikder said the developer and the owner of FR Tower have been summoned by the ministry of Public Works and Housing.
The fire that broke out at Banani FR Tower on Thursday has claimed the lives of 26 people so far and left around 100 injured.
