An official enquiry has begun into last Friday’s fire which killed seven people and injured many more at a modern highrise complex in Bangladesh, The fire broke out at around 1.30 pm local time on the 17th floor of the 21-storey Bashundhara City complex in Dhaka, which houses the country’s largest shopping mall.
According to a report from AFP, the fire, which took around 10 hours to extinguish, destroyed floors 16-21 of the complex. The six-storey shopping mall, which contains shops, a gym, food court and cinema complex, was evacuated soon after the fire began. The offices above the mall were largely unoccupied, as Friday is a day of rest in the Muslim country.
A writ has also been filed in the country’s high court challenging the government over its provision of equipment and resources to tackle fires in high rise buildings. The Xinhau news agency reports that the first firefighters to respond to the fire had no suitable equipment to fight the fire beyond the 13th floor. Bangladesh’s home minister has vowed to provide the necessary equipment to tackle such fires in future.
The Bashundhara City complex opened in 2004 and was Bangladesh’s first modern shopping centre.
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