3 bodies recovered from Mohakhali fire

Staff Reporter :
The fire service workers recovered three dead bodies so far in the fire on the 13th floor of the capital’s Mohakhali Khawaja Tower.

A source from the fire service confirmed this to the media after 12:00 am on Thursday.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Rafiqul Islam (63) and Aklima Rahman (31). Rafiqul was an engineer by profession. He worked as the project coordinator at a tech firm named Saif Powertec.

The office of this company was on the 13th floor of the building. Aklima worked at a call centre on the 9th floor of the building.

Rafiqul was rescued from the building at around 12:15 am and was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where the on duty physicians declared him dead. Aklima was brought to the DMCH at around 1:15 am.

Confirming their death, DMCH police outpost inspector Bacchu Mia said that their bodies have been kept at the DMCH morgue.

Earlier, another woman named Hasna Hena (27) died in the fire. She was the sales-in-charge of an internet service provider named Orbit.

According to the witnesses, she died after falling from the building while trying to get down using an internet wire. The fire originated at around 4:45 pm in that 14-storey building in the Amtali area of Mohakhali.

Around 12:00 am, Brigadier General Md Main Uddin, Director General of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence said the fire had been brought under control.

Some 10 persons, including three women, were rescued from the building.

The Fire Service has formed a five-member investigation committee into the incident of fire at Khawaja Tower.

The committee has been asked to submit a report within 15 working days after assessing the cause of the fire and the damage.

The fire service assuming that the fire originated from an electrical short circuit.