Narrow entrance, wooden interior become obstacle to douse fire

The fire that broke out in building-7 of the Bangladesh Secretariat has been completely extinguished after 10 hours. However, questions have been raised about the cause of the fire and the delay in dousing the fire.

The Fire Service says the narrow entrance of the Secretariat and the wooden interior and locked rooms inside the building caused the fire to spread quickly and delayed extinguishing.

In response to a question from journalists on why it took 19 units so long to douse the fire that broke out at 1:45am on Wednesday (December 25), the Director General of the Fire Service said on Thursday, "The place where the fire erupted is confined."

He said, "As all the rooms were locked, we had to break the glass or doors to pour water. This took time. Moreover, the fire spread further due to the electrical wiring throughout the building which made it difficult to extinguish it."

He also said that the interior decoration of the rooms made it difficult to extinguish the fire.

Several members of the fire service said that they had to face obstacles at various places while extinguishing the fire. They had to work very hard to enter the fire service vehicle through the Secretariat gate. In addition, only two turntable ladders (TTLs) of the fire service were able to enter the building to extinguish the fire. Moreover, there was a lot of difficulty in getting the fire service vehicle out of the Secretariat after the fire was extinguished.

There are a total of five entrances to the Secretariat. However, there are only two entrances for fire service vehicles. Even through these two gates, large fire service vehicles faced difficulties to enter into the Secretariat premises.

Fire service workers said a fire service vehicle also broke down while trying to enter through gate number 4 of the Secretariat.

Visiting the Secretariat on Thursday morning, broken window glasses were seen scattered around the building that caught fire. Almost the entire sixth to eighth floor of the building was burnt down in the fire. Law enforcement personnel were not allowing anyone to enter the building.

Several ministries including the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, the Local Government Ministry, the Youth and Sports Ministry, and the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry are located in Building No-7. The Road Transport Ministry, the Local Government Ministry, the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, and the Youth and Sports Ministry were the most damaged. The fire mainly damaged the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors of the building.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Adviser Lieutenant General (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Housing and Public Works Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan, and Social Welfare Adviser Sharmin Murshid visited the damaged building from on Thursday morning. They said that an investigation committee has been formed to investigate the fire incident.

Earlier, the fire service received a report of a fire at the secretariat at 1:52am on Wednesday. Later, 19 units of the fire service worked to control the fire from 1:54am. A fire service worker was also killed in the incident.

Secretariat officials say that important files of various departments and ministries may have been burned in the fire at the Secretariat.