Mirpur slum fire injures four, burns hundreds of shanties

At least four people were injured and several hundred shanties gutted in a fire that ripped through a slum in Mirpur's Rupnagar in the capital on Friday.

Fire Service and Civil Defence officials identified three of the injured as Kabir, 35, Habib, 19, and Rafiq but the other's identity could not be traced immediately.

According to the Fire Service and Civil Defence, a total of 24 fire-fighting units worked around three hours and brought the fire under control around 10:30pm.

The fire was originated from a shanty of Chalantika Slum on the West side of Al Arabia Mosque around 7:20pm, said Fire Service and Civil Defence Central Control Room officer Ershad Hossain.

Chalantika slum dweller Mahmuda Akter told Prothom Alo that she was staying with her two sons in their shanty.

Suddenly, she heard people screaming 'fire, fire'. Coming out of her shanty, she started running with her sons and somehow escaped the fire. But, she could not save any valuables of her residence.

"Everything in my house was burnt to ashes," said Mahmuda, a house help in profession.

The reason of the fire, however, could not be known immediately.

Source: Prothom Alo