National emergency service 999 restored after seven hours

Staff Reporter :
Though the Police Headquarters authority had suspended national emergency service – 999 temporarily due to the devastating fire in the city’s Bangabazar, but it was restored after seven hours.
AIG (Media and PR) of Police Headquarters
Manjur Rahman told this correspondent that the service resumed around 7pm on Tuesday evening though the police’s National Emergency Service 999 was temporarily suspended around 12 noon due to the terrible fire in Bangabazar.
Earlier, the Police Headquarters requested the people to contact nearby local police stations or fire stations in case of emergency.
The massive fire broke out at Bangabazar Market in Dhaka around 6:10am on Tuesday and spread soon.
The massive fire at the Bangabazar Shopping Complex disrupted operations of national emergency service 999, forcing authorities to temporarily suspend the service.
Anwar Sattar, inspector (media) of 999, said, “The service has been suspended since 10:15am. We are trying to revive it soon.”
He also said that the national emergency service office is located near the Bangabazar Shopping Complex, and the fire disrupted various aspects required for the service to operate, such as telephone and internet connectivity.
However, the blaze was brought under control at about 12:35pm, said Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters.
Black smoke was coming out from different places and firefighters were still then working there to fully douse the fire, he said.
Forty-eight firefighting units were engaged in extinguishing the blaze. The authority concerned is yet to know the causes of massive fire of Bangabazar where at least 5,000 shops gutted.