The first five floors of the Building No. 7 in the Secretariat which had caught fire in the early hours of December 26 has been reopened on Sunday, 11 days later, after inspection by Housing and Public Works Secretary Hamidur Rahman Khan.
Officers and employees of ministries and divisions housed in those five floors were allowed to enter their offices and they were allowed to bring their vehicles in the Secretariat.
According to the witnesses, offices housed in up to the fourth floor of the nine-storey building began functioning. The fifth to eighth floors damaged by fire remained closed.
After visiting the damaged floors, Housing and Public Works Secretary Hamidur Rahman Khan told media, "Normal work in the building has resumed. Cleaning the offices has begun. The water lines and computer connections are also being repaired. We hope to resolve the water supply issue by the end of the day."
Hamidur Rahman said, "The repair of the four floors damaged by fire has begun. We expect that work on these floors will begin within next 10 to 12 days. Our engineers said that they will complete the renovation within the specified period. We will do our best to expedite the process."
In response to a query about the probe body report which stated that the fire occurred due to loose connection in electric wiring, the secretary said, "It is not an issue of discussion here."
Whether any action would be taken against those responsible for the loose electric wiring, he said that the probe body would take a decision in this regard.
On December 26, a fire broke out in the early hours severely damaging several floors of Building No. 7 and documents stored in them.
It took 19 firefighting units around six hours to bring the flames under control and 10 hours to douse the fire, according to firefighters.
The first report about the fire breaking out in the Secretariat came at 1:52am. Several fire tenders reached the scene and started fighting the flames at 1:54am, Fire Service and Civil Defence media cell officer Talha Bin Jasim told reporters.
The fire sparked speculations about its origin. The Cabinet Division appointed a committee to investigate the fire.
However, the eight-member committee headed by Nasimul Ghani, senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, scrapped the speculation of sabotage in the evening, and a new committee was formed that night.
On December 31, the committee said that a loose electrical connection caused the fire and that no sabotage ha occurred.
Chief of the probe committee Nasimul Ghani stated, "We have prepared a detailed report, but further tests and analysis are underway."
