Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Epaper

Secretariat fire still a mystery

Whether it's an act of sabotage  could be determined after investigation: Home Adviser

Published : Friday, 27 December, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 349
Staff Correspondent
 
Nearly ten hours after it first sparked, the fire at Building No. 7 of the Secretariat - the nerve centre of Bangladesh's administration - has been extinguished completely.

The combined effort by 19 firefighting units was able to bring the flames under control around 8:05am on Thursday, but it took until 11:45am for them to be put out, according to Fire Service official Talha Bin Jashim.
The cause of the devastating fire that engulfed Building No-7 of the Bangladesh Secretariat still remains unknown, said Brig Gen Muhammad Jahed Kamal, Director General (DG) of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD), on Thursday.

"We received a report around 1:52am that a fire had broken out at building No. 7 of the Secretariat. Our firefighting units reached the scene by 1:54am.

All important documents on the eighth and ninth floors of the building may have been burnt down fully, suspects Brig Gen Muhammad Jahed Kamal.

"Eighth and ninth floors were damaged the most. We suspect that all documents of those floors may have been burnt down."Building No 7 houses the ministries of finance, LGRD and cooperatives, youth and sports, post, telecommunication and information technology, labour and employment, and road transport and bridges, and different departments and divisions under them, according to Cabinet division website.

The DG added, "A total of 20 fire fighting units and 211 firemen were working to control the fire that broke out early Thursday. But due to lack of places, 10 units were not working smoothly. '

 "As of now, 19 units have been dispatched here and 10 of them are working directly (to douse the fire). There are some limitations for the large vehicles to enter the area," Brig Gen Kamal told the media five hours after the fire broke out." He said the firefighters had to break two front gates to let fire trucks enter the area.

The building No. 7 of the Secretariat houses several important offices on its 10 floors. Even when the head of government works from the Secretariat, they use an office in this building.

The fire sparked many discussions on social media, with many suspecting foul play as the blaze tore through the rooms of the important state institution. Some questioned whether it was an attempt by the deposed Awami League government to 'destroy proof of their corruption'.

Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury confirmed during a press briefing at the scene that one of our fireman Nayan was injured after being hit by a speeding truck while crossing the road to connect a water pipe to a pump. He later died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Two more were also injured. But they are now well.  He said whether the fire was an act of sabotage could only be determined after an investigation.

Members of the army, police, BGB and the Armed Police Battalion (APBN) were also present at the site. A Navy official who took part in the firefighting efforts at the Secretariat, says the incident seems 'pre-planned' to him.

Md Aminul Islam, Senior Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, said, "It wasn't a short circuit. Perhaps they set a pre-planned fire." A fire broke out at the Secretariat early on Thursday morning and was finally extinguished after nearly 10 hours of effort by 19 firefighting units. A Navy team also took part in the operation.

"Our Navy team was at work here. It wasn't due to a short circuit. To me it seems to be pre-planned. It seemed to have started in different places. If there was a short circuit, it would have been at one location. But it didn't start in one place. It started in several places."

The blaze in the nine-storey building could be seen in the early morning and led to widespread speculation on social media as to the cause.

A firefighter - Md Soanur Zaman Nayan - was crossing the road in an attempt to connect a water hose when he was rammed by a truck and critically injured. The truck then rushed off.

He was then taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead. Police have since detained truck driver Belal Hossain Sumon and his assistant Farhad - identified by a single name - over the incident, said Mohammad Khalid Mansur of Shahbagh Police Station.



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