‘I risked my life but couldn’t save anything from fire’

"I risked my life to enter my shop despite the fire but could not save anything," said Md Babul, a seller of baby cloth items at the New Super Market.

Babul had two outlets selling baby products, mostly imported, on the first floor of the three-storey market.

The fire that broke out early in the morning burnt both the stores of the businessman to ashes along with other shops in the market, according to Babul.

"I have lost everything in the fire," said Babul, while looking at the fire helplessly.

Firefighters brought the fire at New Super Market under control after three and a half hours of their effort. Photo: Sajjad Hossain

He said after suffering a huge loss during the Covid-19 pandemic-induced business slowdown, he injected Tk 1 crore into his clothing business in order to make up for the losses.

"I sold land property worth Tk 30 lakh and borrowed the hoping for a good return ahead of Eid," he said.

Eid-ul-Fitr is the religious largest festival in Muslim-majority Bangladesh and the shopping season offers clothing, footwear and other fashion item retailers to pull off a major portion of the sales target set for the entire year.

The shops of the trader, who hailed from Bhola, sold products in the range of Tk 1,000 to Tk 4,000.

"I had started to get a good response from the clients. The fire has burnt everything," Babul said.

He said he entered one of his shops during the fire but could not save any product. 

"Even I could not bring out the Tk 14 lakh that was in the cashbox."

He estimated that the products and other valuables worth Tk 1.5 crore were damaged in the fire.

Firefighters brought the fire under control after three and a half hours of efforts at 9:10 am, according to Fire Service and Civil Defence.

The fire incident of the New Super Market took place just 11 days after the devastating fire at Dhaka's Bangabazar market, one of the biggest wholesale and retail clothing hubs in the country.

Read more

Tk 303cr lost in Bangabazar fire

Around 3,845 shops were burnt to ashes in the Bangabazar market fire on April 4 that caused an estimated loss of Tk 303 crore.