More than 200 firefighters have helped put out a large fire that started overnight at the Secretariat’s building No. 7, which houses Bangladesh’s bureaucracy.
At approximately 8:05 a.m. on Thursday, 19 fire service units managed to contain the fire.
Prior to that, at approximately 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Jahed Kamal, director general of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense, gave a press briefing.
We received notification that the Secretariat’s building No. 7 was on fire around 1:52 in the morning. By 1:54 am, our firefighting units arrived on the scene.
Currently, ten out of the 19 units dispatched to this location are actively battling the fire. Five hours after the fire started, Brig Gen Kamal told the media, “There are some limitations for the large vehicles to enter the area.”
According to him, in order for two firetrucks to enter the area, the firefighters had to smash through two front gates.
We have currently contained the fire. The sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth floors were the ones that caught fire. Within an hour, we hope to completely extinguish the fire.
The director general said firefighters explored every room and tried to extinguish the fire.
He mentioned that they had hired 211 workers for the firefighting effort, which was almost complete.
“An unfortunate incident has occurred. During the early stages of the fire, a truck struck a firefighter who was crossing the street while he was attaching the pipes to the water pump.
After bringing him to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the doctors declared him dead.
The Secretariat’s ten-story building No. 7 is home to a number of significant offices. The head of state uses an office in this building even when they are working from the Secretariat.
The nine-story building also houses the offices of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Labor and Employment, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Division, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
