One dead, 12 injured in BD fire

DHAKA: A fire raging through a slum destroyed nearly 100 bamboo and tin shanties Saturday near the Bangladeshi capital, killing one woman and injuring about a dozen others, a television report said.

The fire at Pagla township near Dhaka is thought to have started from a cooking stove, the private ATN Bangla network reported.

Most of the inhabitants of the slum – that had sprung up behind a movie theater – were away at work at the time.

Fire fighter took about two hours to control the blaze, which caused extensive damage to property, ATN television footage showed.

Fires at congested slums are commonplace during the dry winter-spring season in Bangladesh.

Last month, a fire from a kitchen oven destroyed about 700 huts, leaving nearly 3,000 people homeless at a Dhaka slum. About 20 people were slightly injured, but no deaths were reported in the blaze. ap

Home | Foreign