An employee of a paper company in the capital's Farmgate has been absent without official leave ever since he attended a fire safety workshop at work.

He was last seen running out of the office soon after the workshop, apparently in a cold sweat, and shouting, "I've gotta get to the multiplugs. So many multiplugs!"

The employee who went AWOL has been identified as Assistant to the General Manager Sarwar Topu Shaker, said the company's human resources manager quoting Shaker's colleagues. People were sent to his home after he failed to answer calls from work for a stretch of 14 hours, as per HR policy, HR Manager Jimbro said.

They also visited his relatives, who said that as far as they knew, Shaker had left the capital with his wife and one-year-old son.

"Shaker was okay when the workshop started, but according to those sitting near him, he was gasping louder and louder as the fire safety instructor kept pointing out the ways a fire disaster could happen in the home."

Akhi Dastagir (name changed because she isn't a real person), who sat next to Shaker at the workshop, told this correspondent that when the instructor started talking, Shaker like everyone else was joking around about fire safety and how ill-prepared we all were for a fire incident.

"I think the instructor sensed that he was not being taken very seriously, and so he dialled it up," Akhi said.

The instructor, whom we won't name because if you say his name thrice he reportedly just shows up, started narrating horror stories.

"I mean, it was like newspaper stories, you know? Like, 'he called his mom and said goodbye, but he did not know he was saying goodbye not just for the night but forever. If only he turned the switch off'... these kinds of stories," Akhi said.

Shaker started twitching when the instructor talked about how fire extinguishers could be unreliable if regular maintenance is not done.

According to Akhi, Shaker at that point muttered, "I have had a fire extinguisher at home for about three years but I did not once do any maintenance."

When the fire instructor talked about keeping windows open in the kitchen overnight so that there is zero chance of gas accumulating from a leaky cylinder or pipe, Shaker started twitching.

"But what about dengue? We have dengue, I don't want my child to get dengue," Akhi quoted him as saying, adding that he kept repeating the word dengue, interspersed with gas, for a while after that. 

But Shaker reportedly lost his equilibrium when the instructor narrated a story about parents who worked all day for their child, but were not wise enough to pay for safe multiplugs, which lead to unspeakable disaster.

"That's when he ran out of the seminar room shouting," Akhi said.

HR Manager Jimbro said, even though no one asked him anything, "The only fire he should be worried about is being fired!"

He then walked away with a smug look on his face.

UPDATE: A family member of Shaker got a text from him, which said, "I am out in an open area. Will throw away this phone because it's a fire risk. Am also working on a large enough fire extinguisher to douse the sun."