Mustafa Kamal Chowdhury, an employee of Aamra Networks Limited, tried his very best to keep calm and collected when he realized his life was in danger.
When he first heard about the fire he was in his office at FR Tower last Thursday.
Coiling in dread, Mustafa made his way to the stairs, but found his escape route was blocked by smoke and fire.
“We called our colleagues in the next building. We were on the 9th floor. They tried to break the grille of the window of Ahmed Tower, the adjacent building, to save us,” he said.
“They tried really hard. But the grille couldn’t be broken. The fire almost reached us. My colleagues and I were sure death would come before a rescue,” he added.
Mustafa on Saturday recounted the horrors of his experience at a public hearing before the probe committees that are investigating the incident. He had to relive the terror for the betterment of this city.
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The public hearing was jointly organized by the fire service, police, a six-member probe body formed by the Home Ministry, and another nine-member probe body of the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry.
Twenty-four FR Tower fire survivors attended the event at a makeshift control room of Banani police station, and told their tales of survival.
Md Faizur Rahman, head of the probe committee investigating the FR Tower fire in Banani said the hearing served several vital purposes. The probe committee wanted accounts from the survivors, as detailed as possible, and they wanted to know the origin of the fire.
All this information will help them make recommendations on how to prevent any such incidents in the future.
“Their accounts will help us come up with practical recommendations for the future,” Faizur said.
Flash of light, followed by a blast
Faizur Rahman said they have spoken to 24 survivors. The probe committees are keen on finding a definitive cause of the fire, as well as its origin.
“At this point we are assuming that the fire started on the 7th floor. Survivor accounts indicate that. We also think the cause of the fire may have been an electrical short circuit, but we are not sure,” he said.
According to the head of the probe committee, a buying house, Spectra, had their office on the 7th floor of FR Tower where the fire may have originated, but no professionals from that floor attended the hearing.
The secretary said they have asked for all relevant documents regarding the building from the developer company that constructed the tower. However, they are yet to provide those.
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Quoting a survivor, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs (Security Services Division), Tarun Kanti Sikder, said: “They said they saw a flash of light come from the 7th floor, which was followed by a blast. The fire spread very quickly after that.”
At the public hearing Md Salauddin, senior executive of Quasem Drycells Limited, said the fire started around 12:30pm and they came to know about it about 15 minutes later.
“There was no way to use the stairs to go down. So we climbed up to the roof and got out through the next building,” he said.
He said one of his colleagues, who has been paralyzed since 2000, lost his life at his work desk, since he was unable to move by himself.
Shariful Islam, an employee of Aamra Networks Limited said he saw the face of death at FR Tower.
“All the escape routes were closed. The terror that gripped us is unimaginable,” he said.
