Firefighters and army personnel are working to douse a major fire that has raged through a popular clothing market with 3,000 shops in Bangladesh\u2019s capital, officials said.
\nThe fire started at Bangabazar Market in Dhaka at 6:10am (12:10 GMT) on Tuesday but no casualties were reported immediately, local fire services official Rafi Al Faruk told newsmen.
\nHe said firefighters from 47 units were working to douse the massive blaze, which blanketed the city\u2019s oldest neighbourhoods in black smoke.
\n\u201cWe have no immediate reports of any casualties,\u201d he said.
\nShop owners and fire officials told reporters the Bangabazar market and three adjacent commercial precincts had been almost completely gutted.
\nAnwarul Islam, another fire service official, said they had no idea how the fire originated.
\nA military spokesman said in a statement that an air force helicopter had joined the firefighting effort.
\nThe market is a popular destination for cut-price Western fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, selling clothes that were produced in the city\u2019s garment factories but failed to meet export standards.
\nDistraught shop owners told reporters the blaze had left them destitute weeks before Eid, the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan and the country\u2019s biggest religious celebration.
\n\u201cI borrowed 1.5 million taka ($14,100) to buy Eid clothing,\u201d one business owner said. \u201cI have lost everything.\u201d
\nShop owner Akter Hossain and two of his staff were seen trying to bring out stocks of clothing from their burning shop while onlookers stopped them from going near the fire.
\n\u201cI just invested around a million taka ($9,500) to stock new clothes ahead of Eid. All of those have turned into ashes. How will I ever recover from the loss?\u201d a wailing Hossain told reporters.
\nD M Habib, an official at Bangabazar Shop Owners Association, told reporters that at least 3,000 shops, mostly made of tin and wood, were completely gutted in the fire.
\n\u201cThe market had readymade garment products worth hundreds of millions. Most of the shops had extra stocks as Eid is little more than two weeks away,\u201d Habib said.
\nBangabazar, managed by the Dhaka South City Corporation, has a long history of fire hazards. According to official data, there were at least six small to medium fire incidents in the market in the past decade.
\n\u201cThe fire this time however is massive,\u201d said Habib. \u201cIt reminds me of a fire in 1995 in which the whole market was burnt down.\u201d
\nFires often take place in commercial places in Bangladesh because of lax monitoring and the lack of fire safety arrangements.
\nBut conditions in the country\u2019s huge garment industry, which experienced major disasters including devastating fires in the past, have improved significantly over the last decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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