Fire ​quenched after 32 hours, fears to collapse

After 32 hours of effort, the fire at the Gazi Tyres factory in Narayanganj’s Rupganj has finally been extinguished on Tuesday (August 27) morning. However, the fire service fears the building may collapse at any moment.

Assistant Director of Fire Service and Civil Defense Anwarul Haque told the media 'The fire was completely extinguished around 5 am on Tuesday. However, the condition of the building is fragile; Bent in the heat. So they will start the rescue operation after observing the situation.

This fire service official said, 'After an extensible effort, it has been possible to extinguish the flames, but there is still a lot of heat inside the building. Small fires are still burning.'

'The building has started to lean and its condition is dangerous. Some places inside have burnt to dust. It is not possible to go inside and work. We only have access up to the stairs on the ground floor.'

The Fire Service official said that a search was conducted on the roof of the building with the help of a turn table ladder (TTL).

He also said that no one was found injured in any part of the roof and it was not possible to enter inside the building. As the fire has been extinguished, rescue operations will be started inside, after everything taken into account.

Gazi Tires factory is located on the eastern side of the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, which manufactures car tires of the country's largest industrial group, Gazi Group. The owner of the factory is Golam Dastagir Gazi, former Textile and Jute Minister. He was arrested from a house in Dhaka's Shantinagar area in the early hours of Sunday.

Once news of his arrest spread, some locals from Rupganj gathered people through announcements made from the megaphone at the mosque. The group then attacked the Gazi Tyres factory and looted it.

After looting throughout the day, a fire was started around 9 pm. The blaze was eventually brought under control around 7:05 pm on Monday, according to Fire Service Director Lt Col Rezaul Karim.

The families of local residents claim that at least 175 people have gone missing since the looting began on Sunday.

Many spent the whole of Monday in front of the factory in search of their missing loved ones. The Fire Service and Civil Defence have collected the names of the missing from them