500 shanties gutted in fire at city slum
3 kids missing
Staff Correspondent
At least three children are missing after a devastating fire gutted over 500 shanties, rendered 2,500 people homeless and injured 10 people at Katasur in Mohammadpur in the city last night.Locals were seen searching for the missing children in the dark as power was cut off following the fire. Thirteen-year-old Mariam said she was trying get out of her shanty with her three-year-old sister and four-year-old brother, Nayan, in her arms. "Suddenly Nayan slipped away and I couldn't find him," Marium said. Mariam, her mother and two other neighbours were searching for Nayan in the ruins last night. Another woman aged around 35 were searching for her two children whom she had left inside her shanty in the evening before going to work. Witnesses said the fire started in a shanty inside Kaderia Housing around 7:05pm and quickly spread to other shanties of the slum. The shanties were built over a wetland with bamboo structures. Locals douse the blaze after 55 minutes but by then, all 500 shanties were reduced to ashes. The 10 injured were admitted to local clinics for treatment. Locals blamed the firefighters of reaching the spot an hour late. Fire Brigade officials claimed that they had extinguished the fire. They, however, admitted that they were a bit late in reaching the spot as there was no way to go there.
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