The owner of the perfumery warehouse on the first floor of Wahed Mansion at Churihatta in Chawk Bazar where a horrific blaze originated on February 20 last year is still off the hooks.
The devastating fire took the lives of 71 people and left many others with physical injuries and psychological scars, which they carry even today. None of the victims or the injured has received any compensation as yet.
Sources also say that post mortem examination report had been handed to only one of the victims out of the 71 fatalities. Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) sources say the autopsy reports on the rest of the 70 victims have been made ready on Wednesday (February 19), one year after the incident.
The investigation officials found the name of the owner of the perfumery warehouse but failed to find out his address.
Md Asif, son of 52-year old Jummon who died in the fire, filed a case with the Chawkbazar Model Police Station on the night of February 21, accusing 14 people, including Haji Abdul Wahed's sons - Md Hassan and Sohel alias Sharif.
Meanwhile, Haji Abdul Wahed's two sons took the advantage of a fault in the FIR and managed bail from the High
Court, sources said.
The investigators found out that the fire oriented from high pressure deodorant canisters. However, the FIR on the case show that the fire originated from a gas cylinder blast.
At least five probe bodies were formed by the Fire Service, Home Ministry, Department of Explosives, Dhaka South City Corporation and the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the fire incident.
A DSCC probe committee member said perfume canisters stored on the two floors of Wahed Mansion helped the fire spread out to the nearby buildings.
Investigation is still underway to find out at least five people who have neglected the hazard of a big fire.
The fire started at Wahed Mansion used for storing chemicals, not by gas cylinder of any vehicle or restaurant, said the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh or IEB after an investigation.
The first floor of the building was used as warehouses of high pressure deodorant canisters and raw plastic granules while chemicals were stored in the basement of the building.
Of the 71 people who died in the fatal fire, 24 were found on the ground floor of the Mansion.
In June 2010, over 123 people were burnt to death and 50 others injured in an identical tragedy at Nimtoli of the densely populated Old Dhaka and it was a plastic factory responsible for the quick spread of the fire.
The Churihatta fire is suspected to have originated from an explosion in a pickup van, quickly turned into a blaze and engulfed the nearby buildings that housed various chemical warehouses on Nanda Kumar Datta Lane.
The victims include residents of the buildings, physicians, their patients, shopkeepers, their clients and even passers-by and passengers of rickshaws who got trapped in the fire which engulfed the whole area within a very short time, survivors, witnesses and victims' relatives said.
The place crammed with buildings that housed plastic, perfume factories and shops storing a lot of flammable chemicals in them helped the fire to spread quickly.
Some of the people were simply charred before they could realise what had happened. The fire dented shops and melted cars and rickshaws.
