Military helicopters joined the rescue efforts in Dhaka
A Bangladeshi, stuck in a multi-storied office building on fire, speaks on his mobile phone in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A fire broke out Thursday in a high-rise office building in Bangladesh’s capital with many people trapped inside, but was largely brought under control in several hours, officials said.
The fire was the latest in a city where flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.
There was no immediate confirmation of casualties. A Facebook Live video taken by Roy Pinaki showed five people scaling down from windows while burnt building materials fell around them. One person slipped from what appeared to be a rope that people were using to escape, bounced off utility wires and fell to the ground.
Fire officials said that after battling the blaze for several hours, most of the people trapped inside the FR Tower, located on a busy avenue in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district, had been rescued.
“The situation is under control,” said Debashish Bardhan, a Fire Service and Civil Defense deputy director.
The fire had lost some of its intensity but was not yet fully extinguished late Thursday afternoon, Bardhan said.
Firefighters were shattering the building’s glass walls to free toxic gas.
A firefighter works to douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu )
Firefighters work to douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu )
Military helicopters joined the rescue operation, and one person dangled from a helicopter hovering over the roof as thick plumes of smoke cascaded upward.
More than a dozen people who fled to the roof were rescued by firefighters in hydraulic cranes, Bardhan said.
Witness Sajib Hasan said some people shouted for help from windows on the upper floors of the building. Heavy smoke deterred efforts by responders to get close to them, but Hasan said he watched at least a dozen people get rescued.
Firefighters work to douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu )
In this image made from video, firetrucks hose down a building on fire in the Banani area of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. An official in the Fire Department control room says the fire had broken out in an office building in Bangladesh’s capital, and some people are feared trapped inside. (AP Photo)
Banani, the area where the fire broke out, is a busy commercial district with multistory buildings housing offices, universities and restaurants.
Tushar-or-Rashid, an employee of the Vivid Holidays tour company on the building’s first floor, said the fire began above them.
“All of our staff have come out safely but we don’t know what happened to the people who work in the upper floors,” he said. Rashid said the building has 21 floors.
Locals help firefighters douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Fires are common in Bangladesh. Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.
In 2012, a fire raced through a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010.
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