2 badly burnt
In yet another chemical fire in Old Dhaka, two youths were badly burned yesterday while refilling cigarette lighters at a building storing liquid petroleum gas and lighter refill canisters on Nazimuddin Road.
The injured–Mohammad Sujan Ali, 30, an occupant of the four-storey building, and his relative Ripon, 28–were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where they are undergoing treatment at the burn unit.
Sujan and Ripon had burns over 42 and 28 percent of their bodies, hospital sources said.
Sujan told The Daily Star that it was around noon and they were refilling lighters. As one of them lit a cigarette, a huge ball of fire engulfed the room.
Locals doused the flames before they could spread to other rooms.
Police said the two used to refill butane lighters on the ground floor and sell those at Chawkbazar.
They would do the refilling with the doors locked, as they did not want the neighbours to know what they were doing.
Earlier on October 6, at least 10 workers were burnt to death at a chemical factory in the capital’s Dakkhin (South) Jatrabari. Four others, including three women, were severely injured.
On August 22, two persons died in a fire at a chemical warehouse in Lalbagh.
On June 3, 122 people, mostly women and children, died and scores were hurt in a deadly blaze, which originated from a chemical store in the densely populated Nimtoli in Old Dhaka.
Though banned by the government after the Nimtoli disaster, storage and trading in combustible chemicals are going on unabated in the old part of the capital.
The government had also directed the traders to move their stock to a safer location by August 17, but to little avail.
After the fire incident yesterday, Bangshal police recovered around 500 small refill canisters from the house.
Roksana, who lives next door, said she saw smokes coming out of a ground-floor room and there was a bad odour. Soon, two people spirited out of the room on fire.
Those on the other floors of the building got trapped as the fire blocked the exit.
But locals were quick to bring the fire under control, averting heavy casualties.
Fire service told The Daily Star that they were not informed of the fire.
