At Least 5 Die in Office Tower Fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh

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A firefighter at the site of a fire in an office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Thursday.CreditCreditMahmud Hossain Opu/Associated Press

By Julfikar Ali Manik

March 28, 2019

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A fire broke out on Thursday in a large office tower in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, killing at least five people and trapping an untold number inside, the local news media reported.

Videos circulating on social media showed large flames burning through the 24-story building, F.R. Tower. On the ground, witnesses said several people had fallen while trying to descend using cables along the periphery of the building.

Officer Ataur Rahman of the Dhaka Fire Service told The Dhaka Tribune that 17 firefighting units were trying to douse the blaze. Officials said the cause of the fire, which was still burning late Thursday afternoon, was unclear.

Mamunur Rashid Mumun, an executive at a multinational company on the 10th floor, was preparing for afternoon prayers around 12:45 p.m. when he received a call informing him that a fire had broken out a few floors below.

As some of his colleagues rushed for a staircase, Mr. Mumun, who works for Scanwell Logistics Bangladesh, quickly shut down nearby computers.

By the time he moved toward the exit, smoke had darkened the office, making it difficult to breathe. He then broke a window and used internet cables to descend to the sixth floor, where he re-entered through another window and managed to escape.

“I was very lucky,” he said, adding that two of his colleagues were feared dead and several were unaccounted for.

As the fire climbed higher on Thursday afternoon, more employees broke the building’s blue-colored glass and screamed for help.

From the streets below, thousands of people had gathered in Banani, a commercial area of Dhaka, where 70 people were killed in another fire in February that tore through a crowded neighborhood in the city, home to around 20 million people.

From his vantage point on the ground, Shafique Ali Ajam, who works near F.R. Tower, said at least eight people had tried to climb down near the eighth and ninth floors.

Some of them fell mid-attempt, he said.

Kai Schultz contributed reporting from New Delhi, and Russell Goldman from Hong Kong.