Fire ravages secretariat building, spreads across 3 floors: Home Adviser

Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has said that the devastating fire broke out on the sixth floor of the Building No-7 of the Secretariat and spread to the seventh and eighth floors respectively.

He came up with the information while briefing reporters in front of the Secretariat, the hub of the country’s administration, on Thursday morning.

Housing and Public Works Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan was also present.

The home adviser said the fire began at 1:50am while the Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) department was informed after two minutes at 1:52am.

The FSCD personnel started dousing the flame at 1:54am and brought it under control at 8:05am, he said. The fire was entirely doused at 11:45am. 

“Now we look for what happened. We will inform (reporters) whether anything is found after searching the entire (building),” the home adviser said, adding that the fire did not go down from the sixth floor. Nineteen firefighting units were engaged in dousing the ablaze.

On the other hand, thousands of officials and staff gathered in front of the entrances of the Secretariat to join work in the morning but initially they were not allowed.

Later, some of them were allowed to enter the Secretariat through Gate No-5 upon showing their identity cards around 9am.

According to the website of the Cabinet Division, there are offices of six ministries and several divisions in the Building No-7 of the Secretariat.

The ministries and departments are Youth and Sports Ministry, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry, Posts and Telecommunications Division, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Labour and Employment Ministry, Finance Ministry, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Internal Resources Division, Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, Road Transport and Highways Division.

An additional number of Army and Border Guard Bangladesh have been deployed in the Secretariat area to maintain law and order along with other forces.

While briefing the media, the home adviser announced to form a high-level body to investigate the devastating fire.