‘They stole the few clothes I could save from the fire’

It was a double whammy for Mohammad Moinuddin when he found out that someone has stolen the clothes he saved from the Bangabazar fire, which had reduced his entire Eid collection to ashes on April 4.

Moinuddin alleged that a group of people was there who was stealing goods from the burnt down shops at Bangabazar.

Four of the traders this correspondent had chat with made the same complaint.

Moinuddin, a trader of the Adarsha Market, said: "There was Tk 16 lakh worth clothes stored in my shop when I reach my shop during the fire."

The 32-year-old businessman said he was able to bring out from fire and save only around Tk 3 lakh worth clothes in three sacks.

He left the sacks in a place near the gate of the market to go inside again to help others to come out.

"But I could not believe I insensitive people can be when I found that someone stole the goods of people like me who has lost everything because of the fire."

A massive fire ripped through the capital's Bangabazar Shopping Complex on April 4, burning down at least 2,931 shops full of clothes and ruining the livelihood of several thousand traders just weeks before Eid.

The fire, reported at 6:10am, spread rapidly in the crammed market while plumes of dark smoke blanketed the nearby neighbourhoods.

The flames were under control by afternoon, but piles of clothes were still smouldering around 8:30pm, said Dino Moni Sharma, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence.

Owned by Dhaka South City Corporation, the 21,250 square feet Bangabazar Shopping Complex consists of Bangabazar Market, Gulistan Market, Mohanagar Market, and Adarsha Market. The three storey markets are built with corrugated iron sheets and wood.