When searching through the debris after a devastating fire in the FR Tower, fire fighters found that the staircases were cramped, and the security gates of several offices were locked.
“When examining the building after the fire, we found that many fire safety measures were not in place,” Lt Col SM Julfiqur Rahman, director of training and development project in Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, told the Dhaka Tribune on Friday.
“The staircases leading out of the building were extremely cramped. Furthermore, the security gates of some of the offices in the building were locked,” the fire official said.
The locked gates caused obstruction for many victims who tried to escape, he added.
The fire department had served the building owners with safety notice on three different occasions, but all of them were ignored, Lt Col Julfiqur said.
A devastating fire occurred in the FR Tower, located in Dhaka’s Banani area, on Thursday afternoon – killing 25 people.
During primary inspection, the fire authorities found that the building had violated building safety and fire safety rules.
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) – the development authority for Dhaka city – has formed a committee to investigate the anomalies and whether the building had proper fire safety mechanisms, said Rajuk Chairman Md Abdur Rahman.
